Unlearning/ Learing from others

“We do not lose our way because of what we do not know, but what we think we know�- Rousseau. Many times we get caught up in what we think we know and miss out on the unlearning process that could help us grow as people. If we had all the answers in life then we’d be living in the perfect world, and clearly we are far from that. Each human being has lived a unique life, having different experiences that make them who they are; no two people live the same life. So it only makes sense for us as people to learn from another’s experience seeing that they may have more knowledge in some area that we may have little to none. Or they may look at the same thing that we look at and see something from a totally different perspective. So if we listen to that person’s ideas and they listen to our ideas we each gain a new outlook into what we saw before. Opening our minds to diversity is how we could grow and strengthen our bond with one another. The more we can understand one another, the more likely we will all walk down the same road and less will lose their way.
One thing that I believe would truly open the minds of people is traveling places outside their community and worlds in which they are apart of. Whether a journey consists of going to another country or taking part of a cultural celebration different from your own, it broadens a person’s mind. It’s not until we experience other lifestyles than our own and interact with people different from us that we can truly know the world. How can you form an opinion on something when you’ve never even looked at it through another view point? Think about if a journalist was to tell a story and only give one side; it would be bias and the editor couldn’t even publish it
Opening people’s minds has to start at childhood to be truly effective in changing our society. It can’t be left up to parents alone to open their children’s minds because they themselves may be close minded. So what if there was some type of a system imposed by the school system, something that gave young people a chance to experience other people’s cultures and lifestyles so they could respect others and where they came from. This program could take kids into social settings unfamiliar to them. Maybe they could spend the day with a family of a different race or religion. Maybe the program could take inner city high school students to a suburban elementary school to become mentors for the younger children. This may reverse the negative stereotype that inner city youth get in the suburbs. Another aspect to the program could assign students to interview someone who lives in a neighborhood that has a negative image. It would give young people a chance to see a world they don’t live in with open eyes and base opinions on their experiences versus what others feel. Once we see that everyone is part of the same human race it will allow us to be more considerate of one another and hopefully in turn we will begin to learn from each other instead of fighting.
I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up being put in several diverse situations. I’ve had friends from all walks of life; rich, spoiled suburban kids, to friends that have been through war and severe poverty in third world countries. Although I’ve never been a minority in American society, I have been the minority in many of my social settings starting from childhood to now. These experiences have allowed me to see the world in a broader light and to understand in a sense what it feels like to be looked at as a minority. It’s my wish that everyone could have similar experiences.
I strongly feel that communication is important for us as people to grow together. By opening our minds to worlds separate from our own, it will unite us and this will potentially make the world a more peaceful place to live and a more harmonious one at that.