Experience Is the Best Teacher — Reflective Essay

“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards,” said Vernon Sanders Law. Indeed lessons learnt through personal experience leave an indelible mark on our mind, which are invaluable and lasting. Like a good teacher, her lessons are very thorough and one can ignore it, to one’s own peril.

Experiences could be good, like helping a person in need, or bad like losing money on a risky investment. The important thing is the learning that we get from them. One gains from good experience and steers clear from harmful ones. Telling a child not to play with a match box, would probably have no impact on him, but once he scourges his hand with the match stick, he will never in his lifetime play with the match box. Indeed learning from personal experience is more lasting and valuable than following the advice of others or reading about them from books or periodicals.

However wise men learn from the experience of others, like parents, teachers, or an elder. They also profit from books that are a virtual treasure house of knowledge and experience of great men. Eulogising the importance of books Francis Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested.” Such books like the biographies of great statesmen, proverbs and folklore are a gold mine of knowledge and experience which enrich our lives. Unfortunately people prefer to learn from bitter experience rather than appreciate age-old truths like “All that glitters is not gold,” “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush,” or “Honesty is the best policy.” The bad experienced once undergone is unlikely to be repeated in their lifetime.

Life is one great journey of learning and experience is the best teacher. We learn the virtue of patience and forbearance when faced with adversity, courage in the face of danger and wisdom from mistakes. However many people learn the lesson very late in life. Such people ignore the simple dictum that ‘Health is wealth’, to regret it later when their life becomes a wretch.

“Life is brief—a little hope, a little dream and then goodnight”. In this short span of life, one should not only learn from one’s own experience but should also profit from the experience of others. This would save us from many pitfalls of life.