Last week I was able to rematch the movie " Good Will Hunting". I had previously watched the movie when I was really young,this time I realised that I had only understood the movie superficially.
I could write endlessly on all the different learnings that the movie has made me realise and reflect, but there was one specific theme that really stood out for me and was of extreme value.
In the movie we are presented to Will, a guy living in Boston with really scarce resources who maintains a job working as a janitor for the prestigious education facility " MIT". As a viewer we immediately take notice of the fact that Will is extremely smart and witty. It's during the first ten minutes of the movie that he is able to finish equations which "MIT" students had battled and were unable to finish them.
Through the movie, we learn about Will's very difficult lifestyle and past, and it's not until he battles a Harvard student in a bar that we are able to understand that all of his knowledge comes from teaching himself. We had been introduced to Will's incredibly difficult past and all of the obstacles he was currently overcoming and he still took the time to focus on learning, but not because he wanted a job or money it was for his own fulfilment. This to me was the most important lesson that the movie taught me. Sometimes we think of going to school, doing homework or learning as something that it is a drag. We sometimes only do homework or work hard in an assignment to get a grade. Not because we enjoy or get excited for nurturing our learning. We take education as a given. We take it for granted. Watching someone learn because of passion, for the sake of self enrichment really motivates me and makes me reflect on whether or not I am actually taking the education that I was given lightly. When was the last time that I felt excitement when doing a school assignment? What are my motivations when going to school? How does our society shape our idea on what learning should be to us?
These are all questions that I was left contemplating after watching the movie.
How am I going to change my concept of learning?
I could write endlessly on all the different learnings that the movie has made me realise and reflect, but there was one specific theme that really stood out for me and was of extreme value.
In the movie we are presented to Will, a guy living in Boston with really scarce resources who maintains a job working as a janitor for the prestigious education facility " MIT". As a viewer we immediately take notice of the fact that Will is extremely smart and witty. It's during the first ten minutes of the movie that he is able to finish equations which "MIT" students had battled and were unable to finish them.
Through the movie, we learn about Will's very difficult lifestyle and past, and it's not until he battles a Harvard student in a bar that we are able to understand that all of his knowledge comes from teaching himself. We had been introduced to Will's incredibly difficult past and all of the obstacles he was currently overcoming and he still took the time to focus on learning, but not because he wanted a job or money it was for his own fulfilment. This to me was the most important lesson that the movie taught me. Sometimes we think of going to school, doing homework or learning as something that it is a drag. We sometimes only do homework or work hard in an assignment to get a grade. Not because we enjoy or get excited for nurturing our learning. We take education as a given. We take it for granted. Watching someone learn because of passion, for the sake of self enrichment really motivates me and makes me reflect on whether or not I am actually taking the education that I was given lightly. When was the last time that I felt excitement when doing a school assignment? What are my motivations when going to school? How does our society shape our idea on what learning should be to us?
These are all questions that I was left contemplating after watching the movie.
How am I going to change my concept of learning?