The idea I have found to be most important this week from class is the idea of proving your understanding through communication. This idea has been pointed out to me at different times during my life, and each time it reminds me to learn to truly understand, not just to be able to repeat or regurgitate for a test.
This concept of true understanding makes me take a look at the things in life that I think I know, and question myself as to how well I know those things. I have found myself looking back on different concepts that I learned in the past, and testing myself and my memory by trying to reexplain those concepts to myself in my own head. For example, today in class we talked about Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I remember enjoying this book more than any other book I have ever read in school, and so during class I found myself looking back on the messages from that book and trying to articulate them to myself. What I found brings me to my next point.
I realized that I had not forgotten the key ideas behind O'Brien's book, and I am also sure that this is because how interested I was in the book. Like in Alda's essay about Feynman, Feynman only worked on what he found to be interesting, and because of this he was always able to communicate the different scientific concepts that he studied. I recognize now that when I am truly passionate about something, I tend to make the effort to understand it better, and therefore, it has a bigger impact on my life. Knowing this leads me to believe that if I pushed myself to find something interesting in each of my school subjects, I may just be able to become passionate enough about them that I absorb more of an understanding about them. This will not only improve my grades, but also enhance my true understanding of a broad range of topics, widen my horizons, and maybe even change my perspective on the world.
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