abstract that sucked and am totaly changing ,my paper

This is my philosophy of learning; I believe that in order for one to learn they must experience the world. You cannot learn about the world by sitting on your couch and watching the world pass you by. Although there are many things we are incapable of experiencing, due to time, money, and many other reasons, and for the things we can’t experience ourselves we have books to read, about other people’s experiences. But in order to learn from others experiences one must forget about who they are, and what they believe and allow themselves to absorb into the text so that they can experience the text what it is, and not who they are in the text. I back up my philosophy by quoting many authors from the book Falling into Theory, a poet Gabe Gudding, Stein, and many others to help support that one best learns from experiences. I also believe that one learns best from talking and interacting with peers, by bouncing ideas and opinions off of each other, I believe in order to learn no must be open and eager, one must want to learn in order to learn well. By listening to others and being active in a debate or discuss you do not only learn many sides, view points, and opinions you become a scholar yourself and allow others to learn from you, creating a haven of learning.



You are born, in your first few years of life your parents teach you how to eat, walk, talk, and perform other necessary tasks to prepare you for pre-school. In pre-school you learn your colors, the alphabet, how to write the alphabet, how to share, clean up, the importance of nap time, and popular nursery rhymes. After pre-school is completed you then go off to kindergarten where you prefect the skills you learned in pre-school and obtain the ability to learn which will help you excel in the twelve plus years of schooling ahead of you. After you complete each grade you find yourself to be a tad bit more knowledgeable and wiser, just thinking of how once you graduate high school you will be a genius, that by then you must have had learned everything there is to learn in life. But that is not true at all. Although one does learn and gain a large amount of facts, skills, and knowledge in school, there is another world to be learned outside the classroom, but to experience that world of information one must transform themselves into an eager, open, aware student of the world.
To learn is to live. To live is to experience. Not everything can be learned from experiences, but the things that are, are the lessons that stick with one for life. One can read a book about the slums, and the poverty in third world countries, but will never truly understand the realness of them until they visit a third world country and see the dirt covered child wearing no shoes, and sporting a belly the size of Santa but housing no nutrition. When one sees such a heart breaking, eye opening sight they will then understand that there is a world out there where a meal is not always promised, nor is a bed, an education, or even love. Without experiencing a world different from our own it is easy to think that everyone has a life like ours, and that people living below the poverty level only exist in books. Eyes are one of the most powerful tools we have for learning, and once one learns that, they will learn more daily than they ever thought imaginable.
From real life experiences one forms their own personal morals, values, and ideology. Eagleton believes that the truth or falseness of a belief is “less important than what it feels like to experience them” (51). Someone can tell you the grass is green but you don’t know that until you see it and experience grass for yourself for then you will truly know and understand what green is, and that grass is in fact green. But it is not always so easy to go out and experience something to find your own conclusion and view point on it, which is why we have literature. “For “experience” is not only the homeland of ideology, the place where it takes root most effectively; it is also in its literary form a kind of vicarious self-fulfillment” (52) So although experiencing something first hand is the best way to learn, and get a real grasp on the concepts of the issue being faced or taught, the world is big and life is short so we can’t experience everything, which is why we have authors. Not authors of history books who write to inform us on facts but authors who write about experiences: what it was like to live during World War 2 in Germany, or travel the Underground Rail Road; for those are things we can’t experience. But by reading a book from someone who did, one can get the full on feel on what it would have been like to experience such a life impacting event.
“Now, why is it so important that Davidson‘s theory allows the interpreter to learn from experience, to refine ones’ theory in accordance with experience? Precisely because it gives us a reason to study literature” (Dasenbrock 286). By reading we can make better sense of our own experiences. Authors write about their experiences so the reader can then compare and contrast their views with the writers to improve one’s stance on their morals or change them after reading someone else’s experience and seeing what they learned from it. Don’t read to change your beliefs but rather to make them stronger. To understand both sides of the issue, and know why others might think differently than you. In order to learn from others experiences though, one must open up and break down their wall of seeing black and white, wrong and right, thinking “I’m always right”. In order to fully learn from another’s experience you must read the words for what they’re worth and not for what their saying that goes against your own personal beliefs. In order to experience the text for what it is, you must become one with the text, and not make judgments against it until you are fully done with it. Books are written with purpose and intent, the author has goals in mind on what they want the reader to learn and walk away with after reading their book. If one puts their own experiences before the authors while reading it is impossible for them to learn anything new from the text. It is easy to read the text and form the text into an alliance with our own beliefs, but what will you learn from reading something that you already find true, how will that help you grow or even strengthen your values. “Our immediate reaction when we encounter difference is to refuse that difference, to preserve the maximum of agreement, and there are times when this works, when we get away with assuming that we are saying the same thing if by different words. But the interesting moments are when this doesn’t work so well, when we realize that what we are interpreting does express beliefs different from our own, this for me is the most important reason to read and to study literature, to break out of our own circle of beliefs and assumptions and to encounter another point of view” (Dasenbrock 287). Yes, learning from experiences is what I believe to be the finest form of learning but, one must also read of others experiences without building up a wall between themselves and the text. In order to learn how to view the world from another’s eyes, and take a walk in someone else’s shoes we must read their story with an open mind. To be an excelling learner one must have a strong foundation built with one’s own personal morals and values, but have the ability to listen and contemplate others beliefs, by doing so knowledge will be overflowing all around you.