My Way of Learning: Share The Knowledge

"Givers get. The more you give, the more you get"

This bookmark was given to me by my JC Physics teacher, Mr Sng Peng Poo, just before A Levels. Receiving this gift, I actually stared at the quote for some time. How can it be true? If I give, I lose something, or at the most I stay status quo while the other party gains. When will I ever gain? I took one step back and thought about it, thinking through the "hidden meaning" and the following is what I feel.

I was lucky to score well enough in secondary 3 to have my classmates ask me for my notes and asked me to go through concepts and questions with them. I wrote a notebook of Geography note in secondary 4 and when one of my best friends, AS, asked for it, I lent it to him on one condition, and that was to take good care of it and return to me when he is done.

At that time, I did not think much. To me, I was just sharing with my best friend what I had. Unexpectedly, he came to me almost daily, asking me "why this why that", and even pointed out that I wrote wrongly. He corrected my mistakes! Imagine if I was selfish and hid from him, I would have studied the wrong things and scored badly. Furthermore, I would not have reinforced what I've learned by answering his questions. This was the best example of "Givers Get" that I thought of that time.

Back to JC, I was asked to be a peer tutor, initially for Further Mathematics, later Physics. As a side note, I feel that this is an awesome on-going programme in Anderson JC, for the better students to share the knowledge and help others, instead of keeping to self and appearing like a snob. I was glad that I took up the offer. Aside from the CIP hours (yes we did receive it and I still don't understand why), I feel that I learned a lot from teaching. What??? I learned? By teaching?

The best way to learn is to teach. By communicating what I have learned, I am actually putting it into use. If the other person understands what I am saying and most importantly, understand the concept, I guess I am already 99% sure that I have the concept at my fingertips. In the midst of teaching, I assure you that your peers will ask you questions you never thought of, and most likely these questions will throw you off track. These are the questions that may prove to be the difference between an A and a B student.

If you are not the score-well kind, teach too! Who says only someone who scored well can teach? Remember that I failed many of my subjects? How did I improve? I forced some of my friends and my cousins, notably Sis HC and Bro YD, to listen to me teach them. (Theoretically I was not teaching, just getting them to listen to what I thought I knew, but who cares?)
The trick here is to be thick-skin! Come on, when we are already doing badly, who cares about face? I'm sure that your (true) friends won't snub you. If you really want to save face, teach yourself. Talk to yourself. I will talk to myself at home when trying to learn something which I have a hard time. My sister will totally agree as she is always disturbed by my loud teaching, although I always assure her that she grows smarter each day by my "lessons".

Having said so much, I must emphasize that when you are giving, never ever think of getting. It will only hold you back from giving more and make you feel miserable. In the end, you will only stop giving and become paranoid about giving. So, just give! You may not gain tangible rewards. You may not gain instant rewards. But ask yourself this question, when you teach and your friends understand and thank you with a big smile, what is your feeling? Don't you feel happy that you have just done something good? Don't you feel grateful that you've just made somebody's day?

So...

Share The Knowledge!