Is learning always 'fun'?

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Today, Dr I.S. said something that simply shook me from within. He said,

Learning is not fun. Learning is labour!

And then he quoted and incident in which a person came to Mawlana Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi rahimahullah, saying that he did not 'enjoy' doing dhikr. Mawlana rahimahullah responded by saying that this was an area where one should not even seek after the acquisition of pleasure. If enjoyment is the goal then one should do other things like playing (here, Dr I.S. mentioned a name of some game, which I am unable to recall at the moment, but I hope the meaning has been communicated, insha'Allah)...

What actually made me shudder was the thought of my own approach towards learning and the ideas that we as teachers pass on to our students. Do not we always focus on making learning 'fun' so as not to 'bore' our students? Who decides what is boring and what is fun? What sensibility are we creating in young minds? Will it not urge them to go only after 'fun' in life and begin taking the serious aspects of it non-seriously? Great questions to ponder!

Comments

M Umer Toor said…
Higher learning, at the least, always comes through PAIN. An educationist wrote on this issue with such force as to leave no doubt about the centrality of PAIN in learning, whose name and essay I don't remember.

And as Hamza Yusuf says, we're not people of fun!

JazakAllah!
11:12 PM
Haris Gulzar said…
Actually, whatever we do should be interesting enough to keep us at it. It shouldn't bore us, it should involve us. Fun or pain is what we derive through it, but the motivation should be there...
10:29 AM
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