Can EVERYTHING be TAUGHT?

Question

if NOT, what's the EXEMPTION?

Answer 1

Unfortunately no, some things can only be experienced. Almost anything of a physical/mechnical nature can be taught, driving a car, how to cook, build a bookcase, etc. But many conceptual, mental, emotional & spiritual things can only be pointed to by others in an attempt to lead you in the right direction for your own discovery. For example, you may live a life of love, peace, & spiritual wisdom & attempt to show me by example & even point at the way with your words, but I must find the way to it myself.

Answer 2

Hi,
No, I think if everything could be taught we'd all be rocket scientists. Some things, as already has been mentioned are instinctive. Some things we are predisposed to acquire i.e. language (this is believed to be more than just a learned skill) but if we aren't introduced to language in the first few years we will never learn language properly.
I think too there's a difference between teaching and learning. I can try to teach my daughter how to spell but there is a limit to what she can take in because she's dyslexic. People can only 'learn' according to their ability and capacity to understand the subject. I could spend years and years trying to get my head around a car engine but I will never understand it: mechanics could never be 'taught' to me!!!
If everything could be taught to everyone, everyone would know everything. The limit is, how much CAN be taught and this is restricted by the sum total of all the knowledge that has been acquired in this world and how much can be learned which is restricted by the capacity and the capability of the learner to understand that knowledge and learn!
Polly

Answer 3

I have heard that some senior members of the canine family have trouble with new tricks.

I suppose everything could be taught, (assuming someone has the knowledge), but whether it can be learned
is another story.

There are certain windows of opportunity. For example, after puberty it is supposedly impossible to learn a foreign language without an accent.

A lack of human contact, particularly, at certain critical times in infancy, result in devestating developmental problems that extend to the very core of personality organization and can result in a lifetime of effort and struggle "connecting" with others in a meaningful way (e.g., with compassion, empathy, warmth, love, etc.).

This is an intriguing question that can go off in many directions (e.g., instincts, morals, asthetics, creativity) that, from another perspective, could be rephrased as "what is man". How much is "hard-wired ". "How much is adaptable"

I would like to arbitrarily stick with the developmental perspective and briefly climb up on my soap box. We aren't given an unlimited number of chances to get it right. The fall of the Greek and Roman empires can be traced back to disastrous child-rearing practices (but that is another [controversal] story).

The point is that man's greatest advantage is also his greated disadvantage; for while he possesses an incredible ability to adapt and learn, his learning is not selectively constrained. The absence of an appropriate "human" model or teacher doesn't mean that learning stops, just that one learns to be less human.

At least, that is what I was taught.

Answer 4

no
the exemption is that no person on earth could possibly know everything, therefore being incapable of teaching everything. that's like me trying to teach you how to cook without knowing what a frying pan is.

however, the alternetive to everything being taught is that more things can be LEARNED, rather than being taught. if someone had been reading the "study" of racecars for 10 years as to someone whose been racing for 7, who do you think has the advantage point(s)?

Answer 5

I do not believe a person can be taught "How To Think"

At least not by our present evolved Human Capabilities.

Much can be talked around, but no one can go into another person's brain and point to this or that and say do this and do that. Rather one must speak or illustrate and allude to the desired result and trust the person to do the thinking correct enough if they come out with the desired result.

One of the reasons that I think we are so unable to 'teach' how to think is that most of us do not even know how we ourselves think.
Eldon Taylor is a book author who is one of the USA's leading experts on mind/brain stuff. He has a new book "Choices and Illusions" in which he speaks of our mental habits that we are unaware of that affect our lives. Even the expert Mr. Taylor has to provide pictures and puzzles to allow the reader to gain an inkling of what they themselves do unconsciously and then has to allow the reader to explore their own experimentation with processes to Grow into the desired thinking processes.
If Mr Taylor and other experts on thinking cannot teach how to think other than by roundabout pathways focusing on effects then I doubt thinking itself can be taught.

Answer 6

Once again enki, you ask great questions. Not everything can be taught. Can you teach the stars at night how to sing? can you teach a rubber ball how to walk? can you teach a gallon of milk not to go bad after sitting in the sun all day?

Answer 7

NOTHING can be TAUGHT!
Everything must be learned. The responsibility of learning is on the student, not the teacher. A teacher lecturing a classroom full of disinterested students is like a book that is not read. Teachers are more like guides, showing the way to knowledge. Whether we go on the journey, or not, is up to us.

Answer 8

I believe that anything and everything can be taught, but the person who is being taught must be receptive to learning the teaching or it will be wasted energy for the teacher and the student.

Answer 9

I do not think that everything can be taught, because when we are born, we instinctly know how to breathe, and how to cry, when Hungry. How did the primitive men from long ago, know how to hunt for food to survive? so, I do not think everything is taught, I am not saying that we know everything to survive in this Earth, but we really are not taught everything. Good Morning to you enki, it is 9:23 a.m. where I live.

Answer 10

As we often say "we learned from" then we were taught to.
This doesn't necessarily mean learning from people;..or people having taught us. Experiences could be the best teachers where we learn our best lessons from.

To the question: Can everything be taught? I would say 'yes'. I couldn't think of anything in my life that hasn't been taught. From childhood, I was taught to to play fairly, to give chance to others, to give alms to beggars. I was taught how to respect others esp. elders. I was even taught how to sing and dance.
In schools, more things were taught. I learned how things came into being, the anatomy in biology, the energy in physics, the lines and shapes in geometry, the interactions in sociology, even the quiet voices and charm in paintings.
As I grew more, I was taught more. My faith taught me how to give and forgive, to help without hesitation, to love without expectation. And love even taught me the splendor of how it is to care and be cared for...beyond all selfishness.