A life without learning is a life groping in the dark.

(The title is from "the Fundamental Values" by Makiguchi. I just wanted to share the quote with you guys. ^_^)

A lot of people say that life is all about learning or people have to learn throughout their lives. I have always agreed with those statements because I highly value learning itself. However, I think I have never been fully tried to understand WHY life-long learning is so important and WHAT it does to our lives.

“At the same time, learning divorced from life is empty theory. We must check our knowledge against our own experience, especially if we ourselves are not the source of the knowledge” (Makiguchi 68).

As the quote above, we should check evaluate our knowledge (, or have experiences which allow us to evaluate our knowledge). By doing so, we are also able to find values that our knowledge has in the reality; the values that WE find based on our subjectivity.
I used the word “find” rather than “create.” The reason is that creating value actually starts from finding the value. Using the example of Makiguchi’s three types of value which are good, benefit, and beauty, I think that good and benefit are considered to be a process of individual finding a value, and benefit to be a process of individual creating a value. For example, a homeless finds a grimy rag and realizes that the rag is so helpful for him because it warm him up. He just found the value of grimy rag. Then, he goes to find other rags for others because he experienced that it is much better to have a rag even though it’s grimy. He finds some rags and gives them to other homeless. Here, he is creating values; for others by applying the value he found, which other homeless people would have not found unless this homeless brings the rags for them.

Through finding and creating value, in a bigger picture, we are learning how to self-govern and empower oneself, thus, actively participate in building their society. This is because we now know what is valuable for us and what valuable things we can do for others. I think this is why we have to learn throughout life: to constantly find and create values through having examining knowledge in the reality.

And.. I have question about the concept of question. If the space meaning sociocultural space or the community, is defined as where the school is, and if having experiences that we can connect our knowledge and the reality is so important to create value, THEN, how can we accept the world as our community? How can we become true global citizen? This questions becomes more complex for the people who never been abroad. How can we create the emotional attachment onto the place where I have never been to? Also, even though I have lots knowledge about the place, I won’t be able to examine my knowledge about the place, as a result, I won’t be able to find can create value for the community in the place. Also, what is important about knowing the place? What is the value of reading articles???