Learning as Synthesis and Creative Design

How can we transform learning into an experience of joy, creative expression and free flow of energy?

This is a question that thoughtful teachers, parents, managers, counsellors, educators and leaders ask themselves.

How can we help learners to rise from the depths of imposition and drudgery into the realms of creative expression?

What is drudgery? It is the state where no learning is taking place. Drudgery is monotonous repetition. There is no life without some amount of drudgery -- repetition of already mastered tasks. Even those creative artists, sportsmen and entrepreneurs are not free from this. Attempts to escape drudgery by evasion will only lead to neurosis in the long run. What is the way out then? It is finding opportunities to re-create.

Monotony is cured by re-creation. Re-creation is creative expression. It is not re-arrangement; it is thoughtful re-design.

Learning becomes freed from monotony when learners re-create and re-design. Effective learning is a design process. Effective learning is synthesis.

Learning becomes a burden when the learner is expected only to reproduce what is taught, rather than re-create what he has learned. Why do many students dread the drudgery of schools and colleges, and even quite a lot of corporate training? Because all that is expected from them is to be able to faithfully reproduce facts, figures and formulae (information) in one examination after another. Where is the joy? Where is the scope for creativity and thinking out of the box?

Joy is in creative expression. There will still be struggle, striving and intense effort and a demand for rigour; but it is no longer fruitless striving that drains off energy and deflates the human spirit. The striving becomes an ascent towards the higher realms of the human spirit. That is the joy of learning.