I’ve met some really good students in my life. All – better than me.
What was a bit surprising is that most of these students were good at multiple things at once. Sure, they had some ups and downs, but, all-in-all, they were good overall.
My opinion on this is that knowledge compounds – if you learn well in the first grade, you’ll learn easier in the second grade and so on.
On another hand, if you don’t learn well for a while, it’s harder to catch up.
This made me think – can you regain the lost knowledge?
Think of people going to prison for a long while (for example, in communist time in Romania). Did they recover from the lost time in prison?
Two opposite views on this:
- First, I wouldn’t say time in prison, or time spent for a while not learning well academically is lost time. Sure, it’s not pleasant to be in prison, and sure, if you don’t do your tasks for doing well in school, you can be left behind. But time spent in prison and the time spent doing other activities than learning for school can be a formation period (more on this »). You can learn by reading, but you can also learn by doing things, by watching things on TV, by talking to others, by helping, or by asking for help. Life is a continuous learning period. You can learn quite a lot by reading (books, mostly), but learning is not 100% connected to reading books.
- On another hand, I’d say “No, you can’t recover the time lost on a 100% level”. If you don’t learn for years, it’s harder to catch up.
PS, 2021.02.13: Marty Lobdell – Study Less Study Smart – YouTube.