You learnt a few wrong things, it's time to relearn them.

Food for thought: learning never stops.

Learning, unlearning and relearning.

ITK,oversabi, know-it-all. Calm down, life has not finished 🙄

   If you'd agree, there were a lot of things you learnt earlier in your life which you later found to not be entirely correct and then you had to unlearn them and relearn the correct ways about them. Teachings, beliefs, characters, etcetera,.

Earlier this week, something really random happened and it made me realise that there's been a lot of changes with regards my growth. I noticed that some of the things I learned sometime in my life turned out to be false. A very silly example is how it took me awhile to learn the spelling of ‘osophagus' in primary school just to later learn in secondary school that the spelling is actually ‘esophagus'. Phew! I was disappointed. Or is it how everyday we discover different versions of “it's not ‘bumbum Cecilia bumbum' but ‘bounce on Cecilia’ ” in the Mr Macaroni rhyme or “cool-it-cool-it' instead of ‘kuli-kuli’.

Learning, unlearning and relearning could also relate to some habits or beliefs we cultivate ourselves while growing and existing in communities and our societies as humans outside the ones we've been taught.

Not faulting our early teachers (parents, nannies, pre-school,primary,Sunday school and maybe secondary school teachers) for teaching us the things they did, because we all go through these learning, unlearning and relearning processes.

I have so many instances to cite, I'm having a hard time selecting the best ones. 

   In primary school, I learnt to ‘beat my own back' when someone hits me during or outside play. It was a wrong defence mechanism but not so wrong at that age. Now, being this old, I cannot see myself hitting back when someone hits me in public or at home. At least I'll wait to find out why.

   Something deeper... A friend of mine shared her encounter with me. While she sat to relax one time at work, her supervisor asked her to pass him his ‘Mi-fi'. Hearing Mi-fi for the first time and mistaking it for WiFi, she almost corrected him but then she looked again to see he was pointing at a small white box-like item. Being someone who's naturally witty, she'd have sharply intercepted and maybe said something like ‘WiFi not Mi-fi' or maybe ask, ‘ don't people only connect to WiFi through their devices?'. I bet she'll never forget that time and I'm sure it has also taught her to wait before speaking.

On Sunday, I had a visitor and a random discussion about how his secondary school was run by Catholic Reverend brothers came up. I've been Catholic all my life and I've only heard about Reverend Fathers and Reverend Sisters. Believing I couldn't be in the wrong considering how deeply rooted in the Catholic faith I am, I argued that he was confusing seminarians who are called ‘brothers' for Reverend brothers. He gently pulled out his phone and behold, ‘Reverend brothers' appeared on Google with proof that they've been in existence for awhile. I was stupefied to say the least.

There are some things you build on. For instance, being born in a Muslim environment, my mum taught us to wear native attires on Fridays and tie our hairs and wrap veils around ourselves as a form of inclusivity. She grew up in Zaria herself and was taught to do that also. As an adult, I've learnt different ways to tie my hair. I attended a Muslim wedding one time dressed like an Aisha or Hafsat and I could see and feel the admiration.

I've come to know that there are three phases of life: construction, deconstruction and then reconstruction. 

Construction happens to us as kids. Our first teachers mold us with certain beliefs that we accept at that stage because we do not know anything about the workings of life yet.

Deconstruction comes when we begin to enter into the society by ourselves- interacting, observing and then grasping to certain levels, the workings of life. Here we compare beliefs or teachings learnt at our construction stage(s) and then we begin to drop them which leads us to the reconstruction stage where we form our own beliefs and stick to them.

One thing I know about learning is that you have to be really patient with it. No human knows everything, instead, we learn and continue to build on existing knowledge. 

I thought to share this because there are a lot of people who have gotten in one form of trouble or the other for dwelling completely on their own knowledge. In workplaces, in relationships and in our societies. Refusing to accept that you do not know something is like digging your own grave. I've met really annoying people forcefully shoving their ideas on others, refusing to accept that there are diverse approaches to doing things. When you meet this type of people, do not try to force your own ideas on them too, as you already know that ‘two wrongs cannot make a right'. 

Just like in the media world, computers used back in 1800s cannot exist now because new ones have been built and the generations have changed. You cannot use the old version of Facebook now because you'll miss out on many things. Marketing has moved online now and in order to excel, sellers have to learn to utilise social media platforms. There's so much more.

   Yes you are smart, very knowledgeable, ‘learned' and so on but dear reader, keep your heart open because ‘who ask question no dey loss'. Learn to construct and then scatter when you find something wrong and then reconstruct.

Comment other things you've had to drop or build on.

Photo credit: Google.com