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Cloisters Summer 2007

For the Love of Learning

Arthur Chapman

In my last piece for Cloisters I wrote about the personal touch – one aspect of the NCS philosophy – in this issue of Cloisters I will look at another aspect – the love of learning. The New Curiosity Shop was created because both Noel and I had, and still have, a deep commitment to, and love of, learning. We also wanted to help others to experience our excitement at learning new things, and extending their knowledge and understanding. ‘Why?’ you might ask. What’s important about a ‘love of learning’? Isn’t learning just a means to an end? Isn‘t it just a way of getting a good job, or wealth, or prestige, or all three? Once we have achieved any or all of these what need is there of more study, more learning? Well, that might be some people’s reaction but I hope it’s not yours. If it is then please read on and see if I can persuade you otherwise, if it’s not then read on as well and see if you agree with me.

Firstly I suggest that learning is about growth. Learning is a central part of what it is to grow as a human being, to become more human, or more fully human. Learning may be “useful” in the sense that it provides the means to getting a job, but it’s more than just “useful” in that limited sense. Life itself is a journey on which new vistas open and new experiences are had. We encounter new people, and come across new ideas.

Secondly though, a love of learning, suggests more than just an acceptance that learning is part of being human, it means being committed to never being satisfied that we have learnt all we need or want to learn. It means always looking out for new areas to explore. It might mean pursuing some subject in greater and greater depth – learning all you can about one aspect of Archaeology or Astronomy – or it might mean dipping your toe in a number of different streams – Philosophy, History, or Forensic Psychology. A commitment to a love of learning doesn’t limit options, it creates more possibilities.

Then, following on from this second aspect, a love of learning should engender in us a sense of humility. That may sound contradictory, but a love of learning, the desire to learn more, will inevitably bring with it the realisation that the more I know, the more there is to know. What there is to know continues to expand even as our own knowledge grows. As a consequence we should become more humble and less arrogant. An attitude of humility also means that we realise that we don’ t have all the answers – maybe we don’t even know all the questions

Finally, a love of learning should also lead to deeper understanding and maybe eventually a degree of wisdom – a word seldom heard these days. Wisdom is more than knowledge, knowledge more than information. As T S Eliot says in his poem Choruses from ‘The Rock':

“Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.”

You don’t have to be religious to use the word GOD here. We can think of it as being shorthand for wisdom, for a depth of understanding, meaning, compassion and empathy deeper than anything we have ever experienced but something nevertheless worth striving for. Perhaps a real love of learning might help to contribute to this process.

So a commitment to a love of learning means that as long as we live the search, the journey, never ends. A true love of learning brings humility rather than arrogance and maybe wisdom and not simply ‘earning power’. Join us at the New Curiosity Shop and continue the search.