Experience is the best teacher
Books are considered to be the source of all knowledge, but all that one learns
through a book is only of theoretical nature in the form of ideas and concepts. It
is essential to utilize them in a real environment and experience the knowledge
that is learned from books.
Learning is nothing but understanding the world around us. Books, no doubt
are a great source of knowledge as it gives us an idea about a particular subject
in detail. But all that one could learn from it is limited to the level of knowing
how a certain phenomenon occurs, or how a certain concept works. The
knowledge gained through books alone cannot help anyone, because what one
learns through the books should be put in to use to harvest the benefits. For
instance, a person who wants to learn driving can go through various manuals
and guides that teach people how to drive, but all this knowledge is useful only
when you are actually driving the car on the roads. It would be an utter waste of
time if one just reads the books and does not use them for practical purpose.
Learning through experience is always a lot different from learning through
books. Let us consider the same example of a person wanting to learn to drive:
even if he goes through every book that is available on driving, still it cannot
qualify him as an expert driver. This is because of the fact that books about
driving can only teach people traffic rules and provide solutions on how to
handle certain situations. The situations faced by a driver could be totally
different from what he had learnt from a book. Sometimes we find that the real
environment is quite different from the one perceived by us through reading
books. This is the very reason why, even in educational institutions, all
theoretical classes are followed by practical sessions.
Learning through experience can also be more effective than learning through
books because one does not envision everything on his own, but is given a
chance to experience the reality. The art of driving can be enjoyed only when
we are behind the wheels and not when reading it in books. Moreover, any
book is actually an account of past experiences, i.e. it is based on the
experiences of people who tried to develop a new idea. The books are their
experiences, telling us what they already have tried. Thus from their
experiences we can correct ourselves and thus save valuable time and resources.
It helps us to concentrate on their failures and to correct them, but they alone
cannot teach us everything we need to know. The knowledge learned through
books alone cannot help us to face all the exigencies that we would face in real
life situations; we have to practice on our own.
Books are like a guiding light in one's pursuit for knowledge. But it is left to
everyone of us to experience it first hand and learn new things for the
betterment of their lives. So the notion "experience is the best teacher" is
perfectly true.
