OH, TO BE LIKE A CHILD.Did you ever look at a child, so young, so innocent to life, yet a virtual WEBMASTER when it comes to setting remote for T.V.? When using a computer for example, they are often limited in lessons, nowhere as technically informed as ourselves, yet seem as or more efficient. Evolution doesn't move that fast, well not in one generation, and not so profoundly. What do our kids, or children of others, know, to put them in such an "elevated" position? Do they have special skills that we somehow missed? Are we declining/getting too old, even at a young age?
Believe me, I am no doctor. However, it seems to me that ability of a child to learn is simply related to their state of mind.
They have no reason to believe that they cannot do anything. They sometimes have benefit of encouragement. Everything is new, and therefore something new, is nothing new. Everything is a distraction, and another distraction is no distraction. Technology is only a word, not a technology. A computer is no more than a shirt with more colours and with more buttons. A mistake is nothing new, and not worth mistaking for a "worry". Their learning is so fast that there is no time for regrets, and regrets are not considered. Their "peers" are in same boat as them, and they view every thing in much same way.
Is there something we can learn from children, something that we once knew, just a few years ago? Our parents may have looked on us and wondered about technologies that we tried to push on them. Going further back in time, some people had a tough time to get their parents interested in a toilet that flushed, a watch that didn't need to be wound, a "biro"/pen that needed no inkwell to successfully write a letter. Whatever would they now think, of a word processor, or indeed a mobile phone/cell phone, or indeed INTERNET?
What I'm suggesting is that we re-adopt attitude of a child when we are under pressure. That is to hold on, drive on, look forward, and nowhere else. There is almost nothing you cannot learn, achieve, if your focus/mindset is right, or if you adjust it. I knew nothing about computers or internet a few years ago. Now I am writing this, which is no great achievement but is something greater that what I ever envisaged, a short time ago.
My background is as a MECHANICAL FITTER, using a lathe and welding bars of steel. Computer illiterate, no typing skills and locally minded as opposed to best invention to date, THE INTERNET, which is essentially globally minded. The first thing for me was to learn to type, which is definitely helpful, but not essential. Believe me when I say that it wasn't easy. I'm sure that it took me 1000 hours as my fingers are large and awkward from years of hard and manual labour.