An interesting fact about schools is the very name of “school.” Etymologically it means “children’s playtime.” It comes from the Ancient Greek word skholë. Now playing is not necessarily a chore, is it? Yet school children for the most part do not enjoy studying. That’s because they do not think of it as learning things that interest them.
It’s kind of like foods that are supposed to be good for you. You don’t want to eat those, you want to eat foods that are“bad” for you, for you think that those are the best foods.
The same sort of ambivalence may attend schooling – studying and learning. We go to school to learn things, and we learn things by studying them. So what separates the good from the bad in this case? The first thing that comes to mind is motivation. If you are interested in something, you learn it without thinking twice about it. If you are not interested in something, you learn it – if you must – begrudgingly, so you think of it as a hateful chore.
There is no getting away from the fact that not all people like all subjects. So there is always going to be a difference between enjoying learning something or just hating the very fact that it’s required, that you have to learn it. Words of numbers? Which do you like? Those who like words, usually don’t like numbers. So readers and counters – if you will – belong to separate groups.
The word “tell” gives us an ironic connection, albeit one that’s hidden unless you know something about the word. What’s the connection between a storyteller and a bank teller? It’s merely verbal, but the reason for it is due to the fact that the original meaning of “tell” was to count.
We still use the word in this sense in ATM as well, which stands for Automatic Teller Machine. The expression “all told” is also a throw-back to the word’s original meaning.
If you have enjoyed reading the paragraph above, you must admit that learning can be fun. You probably didn’t think about that, but perhaps your interest was perked up by the very content of the paragraph in question. So, in this case, you were caught learning something you didn’t know before and you were caught doing it unawares.
Think about it. That’s how learning can be fun. You are getting to know things you didn’t know before. And the fact is that gaining knowledge can be a pleasurable experience in and of itself.
If you look at going to school this way, studying – which is the main activity that leads to learning new things – is no longer going to look like a hateful chore. It may not always be fun, but at least it should never be something completely unacceptable.
By the time you are old enough to go to college, you may have an added motivation to wanting to study and learn. You may be thinking about the future, your own, and you may realize that to achieve your goals, whatever they may be, is not going to be possible without studying. So you might as well try to make it fun rather than a hateful chore.