作者│Robert Fritz

Often, to learn something new, you must unlearn something, just like when filling a tub with fresh water, you have to drain the old water. That description isn’t quite right because it suggests there just so much room in your brain, and to put more in, you have to, like a filled hard drive, trash some of the old files. It is more like this: the new learning may be in conflict with the ideas you’ve picked up along the way. Most people are more able to add new ideas and techniques than they are at unlearning what needs to be replaced.

一般來說，要學習新的事物，首先必須先反學習、忘記某件事物。就好比要在水缸裡裝入乾淨的水之前，首先要將原來的污水丟棄。或許這並不是很好的形容方法，因為這好像是在說，你的腦容量其實有限，如果要放多點東西，可能要像記憶體般先刪除老舊的檔案。比較好的說法可能是：新的學習可能會與過去你所接觸到的訊息有所衝突。大多數的人可能比較容易學習全新的技巧與想法，反而比較不容易反學習，忘記原本需要更新的東西。

A few years ago it was popular for people to say with a certain pride, “I’m a lifetime learner.” That was a phrase that was in vogue, and, in fact, it was a good idea. But too often, they thought of a “lifetime learner” as a collector of things, as one might collect stamps or baseball cards or recipes. These types of collections do not lead to contradictions. To have a Babe Ruth baseball card doesn’t contradict also having a Ted Williams baseball card.

幾年前有些人會很自豪地說：「我是個終生學習者。」這在當時算是很流行，也是很好的想法。不過他們心目中的「終生學習者」比較像是一種收藏，類似集郵、收藏棒球卡或收據這類的行為。這種收藏的模式並不會帶來任何的衝突。擁有一張 貝比●魯斯（Babe Ruth）的棒球卡和 泰德●威廉斯（Ted Williams）的棒球卡本身並無衝突。

But you can’t agree with Darwin’s theory of evolution AND creationism. They say two completely different things about the origins of the species. If you thought one was true, you would have to think the other was not. New learning often contradicts old learning, and if one were truly a “lifetime learner,” there would be a lot of unlearning that would come with the territory.

但是你不能同時認同達文主義，又認同神創論。這兩種理論對於各種生物的根源有完全不同的論述，如果你覺得其中一個論點是對的，那就必須反對另一個論點。新的學習常常和舊的學習有所不同，所以如果某個人是一個真正的「終生學習者」，就必須遺忘許多過去所學的事物。

People don’t usually talk about unlearning. You hardly ever hear someone say, “I’m a lifetime UN-learner.” Yet that’s what learning might take. When I first went to The Boston Conservatory of Music, my clarinet teacher was the great Attilio Poto. I’ve written about him before in my books as the teacher who kept giving me harder and harder lessons. Instead of letting me spend more time on each lesson, he kept moving to the next more difficult lesson. I thought I wasn’t making any progress, until weeks later, he turned back to the first lesson, and, low and behold, I could play it, as I could with the next number of lessons.

人們很少談到反學習這件事。你很少會聽人說「我是終生的反學習者」。但是其實學習就是要這樣。我最早去波士頓音樂學院就讀時，我的單簧管老師是 Attilio Poto。我在我的書裡面曾經提到，這就是那位經常教我很困難的課程的老師。他不斷教我更難的課程，而不是讓我在每一堂課都慢慢吸收。原本我以為我根本趕不上進度，但是幾個星期過後，他回到第一課，沒想到我居然會吹奏，而且後面的幾首樂曲我都做得到。

But one thing I didn’t write about was that on the first lesson, he changed my embouchure (the way I held the mouthpiece and the use of facial muscles.) This change was not easy. There was a lot of unlearning to learn the new technique. The best way to replace an old habit is by adopting a new habit. You can’t do them both. You need to unlearn the old one by learning the new one.

但是我的書裡面並沒有提到我們上的第一堂課。他當時換掉了我的吹奏方式（我用吹嘴的方式和嘴部肌肉的動作）。這是很困難的改變，需要很多的反學習。換掉舊習慣得最好方法，就是採用新的習慣。你沒辦法兩個都做，必須學習新的方法，才能忘記舊的。

Robert Frost said there are some very educated people in the world, and of course, they will resent having to learn anything new. His observation has a built-in assumption: that these very educated people have their identities tied with how much they know. For such a person, new learning is made harder because it creates an identity crisis. Ideas cannot be considered based on their own merits. They become abstract symbols of how smart the person is. This may be one reason that the phrase “lifetime learner” has lost some of its popularity. Too often the phrase, itself, is about identity.

佛洛斯特（Robert Frost）曾經說，世界上有很多受高等教育的人，他們當然會排斥學習新的東西。他的觀察中有一個假設，就是這些受教育的人將自己的自我認同與他們所學的東西連結起來。對這樣的人來說，新的學習比較難，因為會帶來自我認同上的衝突。他們無法根據想法本質來判斷，這些想法成為反映此人有多聰明的象徵。或許是因為這樣，「終生學習」的名詞不如以前流行，因為這往往代表的是一個人的身份認同。

To ability to change one’s mind in light of new information or experience is essential to true learning. My friend Peter Senge likes to use the word “Metanoia.” It is an Ancient Greek term that means a change of one’s mind. I like the idea, but there is something about that word, the sound of it I guess, that leaves me a little cold. Sounds a little like something you wouldn’t want to catch. But the thought is so right, the orientation, the flexibility, the suppleness of mind in which unlearning is as common as learning, and new worlds can open to you.

能夠在接觸到新的資訊或體驗時改變主意，是真正學習的關鍵。我朋友 彼得●聖吉 喜歡用「心意轉化Metanoia」這個取自古希臘語的用詞，意思就是改變心意。我喜歡這個想法，這個字，可能是它的發音吧，讓我有點涼涼的，聽起來很像你不想要傳染的東西。但是這個想法卻又無比貼切，心意的轉化那種彈性、柔軟度，讓反學習就像學習一樣司空見慣，一個全新的世界可能就此在你眼前敞開。

作者：Robert Fritz（羅伯特●弗里茲，是美國一位成功的作曲家，電影製片人，作家，組織諮詢顧問）。文章來自 ICA （The Institute of Cultural Affairs，文化事業學會），經授權轉載。