Learning is an inside job. Some people instinctively know how to learn *(definitions below); some never do learn a comprehensive and efficient way to learn.

To be a student* is to be in eager pursuit of knowledge*.

In other words, learning is something that a student does - from the inside.

When children first go to school, adults teach* or instruct* them about basic subjects that they can use as tools for learning. Few teachers impart the knowledge of how to coordinate and integrate these tools.

No matter how willing someone is to share their knowledge, if there is no way for a student to synthesize it into the whole, it remains fragmented information*; and the information continues to pile up. If there is no context with which to contain and structure the information, it is soon forgotten.

Haphazard gathering of information can be interesting and fun, but a student’s eagerness is soon lost.

Special schools have been created to train* diverse groups of students, or to indoctrinate* students in specialized subjects. These processes are not designed to respect the wholeness of the student.

One who shares his or her knowledge in a special way is called an educator. An educator* does not push information into a student, but presents or uses a conceptual system or framework to draw the inherent knowledge out of the student. Then the student sees not disconnected facts, but how everything fits into a whole.

Each student is an individual whole. When a framework or a plan for organization of knowledge is present in the consciousness of an individual, information that is received finds the necessary links within the whole. When learning is organized through a system, then information becomes knowledge.

Most schools assume that a student already know how to learn. And so, it is up to the student to assess each course and class leader, and apply his or her consciousness to learn much more that the class leader presents. The aim of an educator is to create an environment where a student can surpass the educator.

Which of the above would you consider the most valuable way to learn?

Learn: Middle English, lernen, leornen, to gain knowledge; to acquire information, skill, habit or attitude; to fix in mind; to memorize.

Student: Latin, studere, to be eager about; to study; to investigate; to apply the mind to learning; to acquire knowledge.

Knowledge: Latin, gnoscere; Greek, gnostikos, to know or recognize from within; to surround and envelope.

Teach: Middle English, techen, to show; to demonstrate; to impart; to direct; to admonish; to indoctrinate.

Instruct: Latin, instruere, to pile upon; to put in order; to give directions; to train.

Information: Latin, informare; in- in, and formare, to give form or shape; as in character; facts or details.

Train: Latin, trahere, to drag; to follow; to draw from behind; a retinue; to instill habitual behavior.

Indoctrinate: Latin, in-, in, and doctrinare, to teach doctrines, theories, beliefs, or principles; to place specific learning inside; doctrina, learning.

Educate: Latin, educere; e-, out, and ducere, to lead; draw; bring; to draw out from within.

Libraries contain information on systems analysis, structured analysis, taxonometric analysis, Mind Mapping©, Psychodynamics, General Semantics, Waldorf, Ganesa, astrology, or linguistic structure from which you can choose a framework, e.g.: A simple organizing framework -- Sentence structure: Subject, verb, object, etc.