Learning vs. Studying: i.e Inspiring Curiosity vs. Promoting Rote ‘Learning’

The conversation around education is changing rapidly, especially as artificial intelligence begins to reshape the future of work, employment, and the skills children will need to succeed.

In Sri Lanka, this shift is only just beginning to enter mainstream discussion. But globally, the urgency is already clear. The question is no longer whether education needs to evolve, but how quickly we are willing to respond.

In this context, perspectives from across industries become incredibly valuable.

Today we have an article written by Migara De Silva, offering a thoughtful and grounded reflection on the future of education, the impact of AI, and what this means for children growing up in today’s world.

At Independent Collective School (ICS), these are conversations we engage with daily, as we rethink how children learn, think, and prepare for a world that is already changing.

About the Author

Migara De Silva is a former Senior Economist at the World Bank, where he served for nearly three decades across regions including East Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and Central America. He holds a PhD in Political Economy from Washington University in St. Louis under Nobel Laureate Douglass North, and a Master’s degree in Civil and Industrial Engineering from the former Soviet Union.

A former journalist, published author, and multilingual thinker, his work spans economics, policy, and global development, bringing a rare, deeply informed perspective to conversations on education, systems, and the future of work.

Learning vs. Studying, i.e., Inspiring Curiosity vs. Promoting Rote ‘Learning’ by Migara De Silva

Once a well-known professor visited a Zen master who lived in a remote temple. Zen is a school in Mahayana Buddhism that promotes learning through direct, intuitive experiences rather than relying solely on books and rituals. During the conversation with the visiting professor, the Zen master offered him tea. The professor was pleased to have tea with the master. Then a young Zen monk, a disciple, brought a tray with a tea pot and two cups. The master picked up the empty tea cup and started to pour tea until the cup overflowed. The professor asked why the master continued to pour an overflowing cup. The Zen master replied. “When one is full of his own ideas, there is no room to learn. To fully learn, one must approach learning with a ‘beginner's’ mindset”.

Wisdom of Not Knowing

Great Greek philosopher Socrates also approached ‘learning’ with a beginner’s mindset. Once Socrates's close friend, Chaerephon, asked the Oracle in Delphi - a magnificent temple located nearly 180 kilometers from Athens - who the wisest man in Greece was. The Oracle responded that Socrates was the wisest living person. Upon hearing this, Socrates was truly embarrassed.

Socrates was a humble man who led a spartan - meaning disciplined and frugal - life. He wanted to prove that many others were more knowledgeable than he was. He questioned well-known professors, generals, administrators, lawyers, doctors, business tycoons, and scientists. He did so not to display his own knowledge but to gather evidence that these prominent figures knew more than he did.

As Socrates started questioning these experts, many young people gathered to watch. Soon, rumors spread that Socrates was polluting young minds and sowing dissension. The Greek authorities filed a lawsuit against him and sentenced him to death. Though brilliant lawyers volunteered to defend him, Socrates politely declined, deciding to represent himself despite having no legal training. He said: To tell the truth, I do not need any representation.

His disciples, Plato, who later became a great philosopher himself, witnessed the trial and wrote a book about it entitled Apology. In the final address to the jury, Socrates ended with an illuminating sentence: “Now I know that I am the most knowledgeable man because I know that I DO NOT KNOW, and others do not know that they do not know."

Socrates’s style of questioning is still alive today. For example, Harvard Law School uses the "Socratic Method" rather than conventional teaching methods. The professors provide cases for students to analyze beforehand and then lead a question-and-answer session where students participate by questioning the validity of laws or judgements. This method of inquiry is also common in elite business schools, replacing lengthy lectures and rote learning.

Personal Reflections on the Inquiring Mind:

My own environment fostered a beginner’s mindset, thanks to my father and uncle, Professor Tilak Ratnakara – a brilliant economist and polymath. A beginner’s mindset, characterized by openness and humility, is a key driver of an inquiring mind. Here are three examples from my life where the mindset at times caused friction but finally led to better outcomes:

1. Timeline of the Buddha

Since second grade, I was taught that Buddha was born, attained Nirvana, and reached ‘mahaparinibbana’ (the death of an enlightened being) on the same day. Teachers also taught that Buddha lived for eighty years. As a child, I was confused how both of could be true. My questions were ignored or ridiculed until I reached seventh grade. I finally asked my teacher, Mr. Arttygala – an amiable man, chain smoker, and avid reader. He turned to the class to see if anyone had an answer; no one did. It was troubling that they did not even have the question. Mr. Attygala commended me and clarified that ‘the same day referred to the specific full moon day (Vesak), not the same calendar date across eighty years.

2. Interaction of Protons

In tenth grade. I asked my physics teacher why protons, which carry a positive charge, stay together in the nucleus with neutrons instead of repelling each other. He could not answer and deflected the question, allowing some of my classmates to laugh at me. I wish my teacher had the humility to say he did not know.

Later, I met Mr. Erol Fernando, a renowned chemistry teacher with a beginner’s mindset. He famously taught chemistry for the sake of science, not just to help student to pass the Advanced Level exam. He explained that protons and neutrons remain together by a category of subatomic particles called mesons. Hideki Yukawa won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physics for predicting the existence of the mason in 1935. Mr. Fernando compared it to two people playing tennis; the ball moving back and forth over the net is what keeps them engaged in the game together and that meson acts the same way, moving between protons and neutrons to keep both particles engaging with each other.

3. The Courage of Dr. E. W Adikaram

In tenth grade, I read an article by Dr. E. W Adikaram, a celebrated Sri Lankan scholar and a philosopher. He argued that nationalism was a figment of imagination. I wrote him asking what the Ceylonese rulers/residents should have done when the Portuguese invaded Ceylon in 1505. He quickly replied via mail, which included two of his most recent pamphlets, admitting that he did not have a clear answer. Despite his vast knowledge, he still had the courage to admit to a tenth-grade student that he did not know. This interaction led to a long correspondence followed by a fascinating visit to his residence for a long discussion before I moved to Russia for my graduate studies.

4. The Feynman Example

The brilliant physicist Richard Feynman, a Nobel Laureate, was another true genius with unblemished sincerity.

At Caltech (California Institute of Technology), he taught a weekly class called ‘Physics X’ where anyone could ask him any question related to physics. He built his lectures around these inquires. His lectures are preserved in the popular book, The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Bill Gates, who learned physics through these lectures, called Feynman his greatest teacher.

During one session, a student asked what magnetism is. Feynman said he would address it the following week in his lecture. The next week, he admitted that he still did not know what magnetism is in its most fundamental sense, nor did he know any other living physicist who truly did. That is the humility of a beginner’s mindset.

5. Shantiniketan and the Theory of Intelligences

The failure of rigid, traditional education was understood by an amazing individual in Bengal who lived hundred twenty-five years ago. His name is Rabindranath Tagore. His father established a wonderful facility called Shantiniketan—meaning the "Abode of Peace"—as an ashram and a meditation retreat. Rabindranath transformed it into a residential school that later grew into a world-class university town of Visva-Bharati. Classes were held mostly outdoors without set curricula or scheduled exams; inspiring collective learning from team work and learning from each other, very similar to the approach that the Independent Collective School (ICS) is taking. In Shantiniketan, no one spoke of grades; students pursued their specific interests with commitment and joy.

Shantiniketan is located about 165 kilometers from Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), the capital city of West Bengal, India. It is a beautiful, sprawling campus where classes are still held outdoors. Two years ago, I drove to Shantiniketan with my wife and spent several hours visiting various parts of the campus.

Rabindranath was a true visionary, a great poet, and a philosopher. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his writings, and the most notable one was his collection of poems called Geethanjali, which he published in 1910. Rabindranath was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize.

This fresh, novel approach he instilled, inspired many students in Shantiniketan to achieve great heights. One of them is the world-renowned economist Professor Amartya Sen, who won a Nobel Prize in Economics and is currently the professor of economics & philosophy at Harvard University. Another famous student was India’s premier film director, Satyajit Ray, who was awarded an honorary Oscar (Academy Award) for his lifetime achievements and mastery of cinema. Former Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, also studied there. The great Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose served as the Vice Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan. Prior to that, he worked with Albert Einstein on quantum mechanics to develop what is known today as Bose-Einstein statistics.

Two decades ago, a prominent educationist at Harvard University, Professor Howard Gardner, came up with a beautiful idea called the ‘Theory of Multiple Intelligences’ (commonly known as the ‘Gardner method’). It challenges the narrow focus on IQ tests as did Shantiniketan. Professor Gardner noted that geniuses like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Picasso and Van Gogh would have scored low on traditional tests. I am not sure even Shakespeare would have done any better!

Professor Gardner’s multiple intelligences include the following categories: linguistic; logical-mathematical; spatial-visual (which most of the great architects possess); body-kinesthetics (for example, the magnificent Bharata Natyam dancer Rukmini Vijayakumar); musical (Mozart, Zakir Hussain—the great table maestro, and redoubtable Michael Jackson); interpersonal (capacity to understand oneself, motivations, fears, emotions, etc.); naturalist, and existential (ability to think deeply and conceptualize questions related to life, existence, death, etc.).

He pointed out that students with most of these talents lack opportunities in the standard educational institutions, which employ cookie-cutter curricula. That is a hugely lost opportunity and a waste of precious resources. Many who do not do well in traditional educational settings still possess an amazing array of untapped talent and creativity.

Conclusion

The fast-changing world challenges standard education models. As skills become obsolete, continuous learning remains a critical requirement. This, however, will not remain a challenge for those with a beginner’s mindset; they are, as the Chinese proverb indicates, “old warhorse in the stable still longing to gallop a thousand li” (500 kilometers).

You can explore more about ICS and how we approach personalised education here, or learn more about child development in Sri Lanka here.