Experience is the best teacher
The title suggest that “book-learning is all right as far as it goes, but success in life goes to the practical man of affairs rather than to the lofty theorist.” Such ideas are certainly given the color of truth by the undoubted fact that the successful politician goes further on shrewdness than on political theory, and the rich businessman further on practical ability than on the degree in economics. If success in life is to be measured in terms of money, power and position, it is the practical man who succeeds most often. Experience has taught him when to buy and when to sell, whom to trust and whom to suspect, whom to make friends with and whom to ignore.
The title also suggests that we tend to take more notice of the lessons of life than the lessons of our teachers in school. This is undoubtedly true! Children are naturally lazy and inattentive because a failure in class doesn’t seem to matter very much — at least at the time. After all, there is always the security of home. But, when a man comes to have his own home with payments falling due and hungry mouths to feed, he is afraid to be inattentive to his job because he may lose it. Harsh experience teaches him to be his best, because if he fails, he knows his employers will not be sentimental about the needs of his family.
And again, the title suggests many spheres of adult activity in which, although a little theory is obviously necessary, practical experience alone can achieve results a learner-driver can easily learn the mechanics of driving a motor car in the classroom and be able to answer any question, but with all his theoretical knowledge, he (or she) is bound to be nervous the first time out on the road alone — even when the driving-test has been successfully passed. Only experience can teach the new driver to cope with the speed of the hurly-burly of the city roads.
Marriage, also, is said to be ‘a lottery’. Some mutual thoughts can perhaps, bring together partners who are likely to be happy, but experience really counts in marriage more than anything else. No two people can live happily and successfully together before they have learned by experience how to strengthen their bonds and break down their barriers.
Many occupations also demand a maximum of experience, given a minimum of theoretical knowledge. The salesman goes to shops and private houses with a good theoretical knowledge but experience has to teach him to make friends, what selling line to take, and how to avoid offence. Many a job depends entirely on practice and experience. The shoemaker, the goldsmith, the tailor, the fisherman — all these and hundreds like them learn their skills by practice, by trial and error, and often serve a long apprenticeship to their trade. Even the soldier in battle learns the art of jungle-warfare better in action, when his life may depend on his decisions, than in the jungle-warfare school.
All the same, we must be careful not to regard experience as the only teacher. There are indeed certain subjects concerning which practical knowledge is either impossible, or beside the point, or completely dependent on theoretical knowledge. The astronaut is the practical man of space-travel, but he is merely the ‘Guinea-pig’ of the scientist in actual fact, doing precisely as he is told by men whose practical experience has never been extended outside the university lecture-room. In fact, in the approaching age of science, technology and automation, theoretical knowledge will be at a premium, while practical experience diminishes in importance.
Again, nobody’s individual experience can ever be regarded as complete. We must inevitably draw on the experience of others for success in any worthwhile occupation. after all, theoretical knowledge is in reality no more than the accumulated experience of other people. While such textbook knowledge will have been sufficient in itself, the man who fails to use it merely, makes matters harder for himself. The usual process with theory is that we learn at school rather reluctantly — and then refer back to it when experience teaches us its value and the less well the theory has been learnt at school, the harder this becomes in later life. Experience is no doubt the best teacher, but it is foolish to scorn the classroom.
