Infinite Learning Reflection

(Lauersen, 2020)

Ever since I was young, I have always enjoyed learning new things. Whether it was something I had learned from school or something I had learned from one of the many books I read, it would always give me such joy to learn new things. There were a number of times as a kid where I would even go running to my mom with a excited grin on my face to share this newly gained knowledge with her, and even if she might not have personally found it as interesting as I did (especially if it concerned animals like rats, snakes, or spiders), she at the very least felt very proud of me for learning something new and always encouraged my brothers and I to broaden our minds and explore the many topics we were curious about. I still honestly get a rush of excitement whenever I learn an interesting new fact, even as an adult, and this has continued to inspire my ongoing curiosity of many different worldly topics.

I briefly mentioned my insatiable sense of curiosity in my Assignment X blog post along with the importance of encouraging a sense of curiosity in library patrons; just as curiosity isn’t something which can be limited to specific institutions like schools, colleges, or universities, I feel that learning is also something which should be able to happen pretty much anywhere. I even named my INFO 200 blog Learning Throughout Daily Life because of how important I feel it is to be able to continue learning outside of these traditional learning institutions. Christian Lauersen states that, “The opportunity to learn throughout life is a basic condition for the modern human being and the development of a healthy democratic society. Learning should not only be reserved for those in education or in jobs, but should be an opportunity you can grab all your life no matter how your life situation looks like.” (Lauersen, 2020). Human beings were built to learn, it is something which is literally encoded in our very biology, and our ability to learn can subsequently provide us with the capability to better ourselves and our society. It therefore cannot be overstated how important it is for people to be able to continually learn throughout their daily lives; while it should not be completely up to libraries to encourage this, they should still definitely do what they can to promote learning both within and outside their walls.

References:

Lauersen, C. (2020, June 23). Learning, culture, community and diversity: New library strategy for Roskilde Libraries 2020 –. The Library Lab. https://christianlauersen.net/2020/06/23/learning-culture-community-and-diversity-new-library-strategy-for-roskilde-libraries-2020/