I was "lucky" enough to be asked to give a speech again this year at the Opening Ceremony for incoming ICB students. (I was given lots of time to prepare, too: my boss called to tell me around three o'clock the day before!) It seems that I have become the go-to faculty member for this sort of thing. Well, lots of people seemed to like my speech, so here it is for your joy and edification.
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6 September 2012
Vice President Wang, deans, administrators, ICB faculty, and, most especially, new students, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
In the 1980s, an American high school junior named Jeff Atwood had his eyes set on being a software engineer. He was fortunate enough to be allowed the chance to spend a day with an engineer who worked at a local manufacturing plant. The engineer was articulate, intelligent, and he had graduated from MIT, one of the best engineering schools in the United States. During lunch, Atwood asked him, "How much of your schoolwork at MIT applies to your current engineering job?"
The engineer answered, "I can't think of a single thing from my MIT classes that I've used on the job."
This, of course, was very surprising to Atwood, and I think it might be surprising to you as well. After all, what is the value of an excellent college degree if none of what you learn at university are useful on the job? Well, the fact is that any knowledge you accumulate in the next three or four years is not very likely to remain relevant during your whole career. Remember that humans can fill entire encyclopaedias with things that were once considered common knowledge but have now been disproved. It is generally assumed, for example, that about half of what medical students learn in medical school will later be proven incorrect--the problem is that we don't know which half!
What, then, is the value of an education? If it is not in learning specific material, it must be in learning how to learn. In a world of multiple careers, rapid technological changes, and longer lives, it is continuous learning that will be the key to success. Carl Rogers, the American psychologist, claimed that "the only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." And William Butler Yeats, the Irish writer, argued that "education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." In other words, the true purpose of one's education is not to amass knowledge but to develop the skill of learning.
As such, education is a tool, like a hammer. And like a hammer, everything depends on how you use it. If you come to ICB as an empty pail, ready to be filled by your teachers, you will succeed in learning many things, but you will miss the most important lesson. Oh, to do well at university by the traditional measures, you of course have to learn a lot of new things. And you, your parents, and your teachers will certainly be pleased if you understand the material your teachers present and are able to reproduce it on midterms and finals. But if you succeed at university merely according to these traditional measures, the profession to which you will be best suited is being a college professor. Assuming you do not want to be a college professor, then what you need to learn at ICB is really so much more.
So learning how to learn. How do we go about doing that? I of course have a few suggestions.
First, ask questions. Don't be shy! Remember that most teachers are teachers because they really like to talk. We also like to answer questions because it makes us feel smart. Set yourself a goal of asking each of your teachers at least one question every week. That might sound daunting, but you can start small. Start with questions like, "How long have you been in China?" and "What do you think is the most valuable method of study for this course?" You can work your way up to asking questions about the content of the course.
Second, be an active learner. All too often, when the bell rings at the end of class, students turn off a switch in their brain. They think--if they bother to think at all--"I'm done learning now, so I can stop thinking about this." Or they think it is the professor's job to make them learn. That might have been true in high school, but it is definitely not true at university. At the end of every class, you need to ask yourself, "What did I learn in this class period?" and "Why is this important?" If you cannot answer these two questions, you might as well have slept through the class.
Third, surround yourself with classmates who also have the desire to learn how to learn. I have been married for almost 8 years (which is not at all difficult when you are married to someone as wonderful as my husband), but I still remember the sermon the minister gave at our wedding ceremony. He said that choosing a marriage partner was so important because to whom you are married to does more to shape who you are and who you will become than does any other factor. But the same is true in many realms. Whom you study with, eat with, chat with, and live with does more to shape your learning than will any other factor.
This is my challenge for you, not only for today, but for the next three or four years: Understand that the most important lesson at university is learning how to learn. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Be an active learner. And choose your friends wisely. Then, when you graduate, you can call yourself truly educated.
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