Do you learn by reading, like John Kennedy; listening, like Oprah Winfrey; writing, like Winston Churchill; doing, like Larry Bird? There are probably a half a dozen different ways to learn. Understanding how you learn is obviously a critical element of success. You would think that by the time someone rises to the level of president of the United States, they would know how they learn best.
According to Peter Drucker, President Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson didn’t know how to learn, and it negatively impacted both of them. Few listeners can be made, or can make themselves, into competent readers, and vice versa. The listener who tries to be a reader will, therefore, suffer the fate of Lyndon Johnson, whereas the reader who tries to be a listener will suffer the fate of Dwight Eisenhower.
Schools everywhere are organized on the assumption that there is only one right way to learn and that it is the same way for everybody. But to be forced to learn the way a school teaches is sheer hell for students who learn a different way.
To learn more, read Peter Drucker’s full article here.