Alan Moore – The Drudgery of Learning
“All too often education actually acts as a form of aversion therapy, that what we’re really teaching our children is to associate learning with work and to associate work with drudgery so that the remainder of their lives they will possibly never go near a book because they associate books with learning, learning with work and work with drudgery. Whereas after a hard day’s toil, instead of relaxing with a book they’ll be much more likely to sit down in front of an undemanding soap opera because this is obviously teaching them nothing, so it is not learning, so it is not work, it is not drudgery, so it must be pleasure. And I think that that is the kind of circuitry that we tend to have imprinted on us because of the education process.” – Alan Moore
Alan Moore is a comic book writer. He’s written both Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Both of which have turned into major Hollywood productions. Most of us don’t associate wisdom coming from comic books (maybe we should). But Moore is right. We do try to take the fun and joy out of learning and work.
We get sucked into believing that “real” work has to be hard and challenging, and no fun. But it doesn’t. My guess is, the things you work hardest on are the things you love most. We all try to avoid the tasks we don’t like. When we realize we can bring meaning to our work, we are one step closer to breaking free.
Don’t let your work become drudgery. And if it is, don’t force that same attitude on your coworkers. Give them the freedom to enjoy their work.
photo provided by flickr
This is an interesting perspective, on teaching aversion. But then how would anyone ever learn to read, I wonder? I suppose there must be fun ways, but then how do you unleash it upon the masses in an educational system? Maybe the home-schoolers have some ideas here, since they have more freedom to do what they want in teaching their children?
And also I wonder why do some children end up loving reading, even though it is forced on them? I was one of those kids who loved to read, and still do. The thing I hated was being forced to memorize bible verses. That was real big when I was a kid. But I still read the bible…
I agree with your last comment. Sometimes when our work becomes drudgery, it’s really all about us, not the work. If you look hard enough, I bet there is joy to be found in your work.
Realistically there will always be some level of drudgery associated with anything we do. Even jobs we love will have some aspect we don’t like. The trick is making sure you are motivated enough to overcome that “bad stuff.”
I know growing up reading was never forced on me. I remember seeing my mom read endless numbers of books. And because I was a little kid, I just wanted to be like my mom. So I would start reading. By the time I hit school I loved to read.
I’m sure it’s not a coincidence I went on to pursue degrees in psychology and political science, two of the most heavily reading oriented disciplines.
Leave your response!
About Eric Barrett
Eric Barrett is an organizational development consultant who specializes in applying psychology to communication. He has worked in the OD field for over a decade, and is most recently working on developing social media guidelines for a real estate company. He also teaches psychology at Xavier University. In his spare time he...wait, who are we kidding...he has no spare time.
He is available on a limited basis for speaking engagements and consulting projects. For more information please see the About Meaning to Work page.
Build Productivity
Worth Reading