While I was initially surprised by the findings that students spend so little time learning in schools, I realized that experience is not too surprising. In my experience, and those of most of my peers, much of what I learn in the classroom is “learning for school, as opposed to learning for life” (Falk and Dierking 489). I’ve read textbooks and taken notes on so many subjects and seem to retain the information I take in just until after the exam or presentation that tests that knowledge. During winter break last year, I reflect on my first semester of college and all the classes I took and tried to remember what I had learned. I had done so much reading and attentive listening and participating in class and so much of the information I tried to recall was vague, even in subjects I was particularly interested in. It worries me that I can’t explain Hobbes’ philosophical theory in more detail than he believed humans to be inherently evil and belligerently competitive, and therefore need a single ruler to keep them from constantly going to war with each other.

It doesn’t surprise me though that interest encourages learning and that those interested in a certain topic are more knowledgable than those who’ve had more formal schooling. I’m interested in Biology and Chemistry, have taken those courses, and remember names of certain bones and the functions of certain body parts and organs, but my interest in nutrition and physiology has made me more motivated to learn about the body and the effect food has on it. I still believe formal education is important though, and that we should be learning both inside the classroom and out. While interest is an important part of learning, lack of interest should not be an excuse to be avoid learning a certain subject; resistance to learning is more of a hinderance than lack of interest.