The Best Way to Retain Knowledge is to Teach it

When one person teaches, two people learn

When I was two, I couldn't understand why my brother got to go to school every day and I couldn't. The excuse was I was too young. There is no such thing! My mom said I cried and asked to go with my brother every single.

She says one morning I went with my dad to drop off my brother at school, but dad came back without me. I threw a tantrum. I wanted to go too. My dad and the teachers couldn't bear it. They told my dad to let me be. Dad said I let go of his hand, went straight to kindergarten, sat, and listened to the teacher with curiosity in my eyes. My love for learning was born.

The School system in Ghana was so different. Kids don’t have to wait until they are 5 to start school. I’ve been a learner since, and I will always be. I was the youngest in the class and it didn't matter. I belonged there too, and that's all that mattered. My dad returned with one of my brother's uniform. I looked like a little boy in the first day of school picture, but I was happy.

As I grew up, I would come home after school, pull out that blackboard and some chalks I brought home with me, and began teaching the little kids I lived with. G, O - Go. N, O - No. I came home and taught what I learned and I went back with more than I knew before. My love for teaching was born.

Learning and teaching go hand in hand. You can't love one without loving the other. Do you ever wonder how some teachers and lecturers teach for years and years and never run out of things to teach, and it gets to a point where they no longer even refer to textbooks? Or how some professors can teach for decades and only grow smarter?

Studies suggest that the best and fastest way to learn and retain knowledge is to teach another person. When we teach what we learn, our own ideas and insights become clearer and sharper.

Have you ever started explaining something to someone, only to realize you didn’t really understand the idea as much as you believed you did? When we teach or explain things to others, we see the gaps and errors in our own ways of thinking.

Teaching has many benefits. When you teach, you become a better teacher. When we teach what we learn, we gain new ideas, insights, and even feedback from our readers, students, or the other person. This helps us take that one idea to a whole new level, helping us improve on the topic.

We have better relationships with others. When we give out information that others find useful and helps them succeed, we build our reputation as smart and credible people. We build new relationships and improve existing ones.

When we teach, it helps us process what we learn. We hear ourselves speak and we also listen to ourselves teach. Doing this helps us broaden our perspective and retain the information longer compared to not teaching it.

Learning isn’t about taking in massive amounts of information and keeping it to ourselves. The purpose of learning is to share and transfer that knowledge to others.

When we don't teach, we lose what we learn as fast as we learn them.

Teaching others what we know not only makes us smarter, it is fun too. It is fulfilling to watch others learn, grow, and use the information to improve their lives and the lives of others.

There are many ways we can start to teach the things we learn. Writing and reflecting is the best way to learn and teach others. As you write or journal, you are reflecting on the things you are writing. You are analyzing and dissecting the information.

A study conducted by Harvard shows that we retain more of what we learn when we spend time writing them. This is why students are encouraged to take notes in class. Writing leads to reflection, and reflection leads to the absorption of information.

Writing is therapeutic, so it promotes feelings of peace and fulfillment knowing the information will reach people who really need it. The more we write, the better we get as writers and teachers.

No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it ― Peter Drucker

When we teach, we grow, expand, and strengthen our own minds. And thanks to the internet, we can share what we know with others easily. Instead of sharing what we know with a friend or our partner, the internet allows us to share that information with thousands of other people. Knowledge loves to go around and not get stuck in one place.

Teaching is becoming one of the most fulfilling careers out there. People know the importance of knowledge and learning so they are comfortable investing in online courses or paying for coaching because they know the knowledge they will gain is bigger than the money they pay for it.

This has also increased the number of teaching occupations out there. There are writers, authors, coaches, advisors, journalists, managers, thought leaders, mentors, consultants, etc. The list goes on. At the end of the day, we are all teachers.

As parents and caretakers, we teach when we explain important life lessons to our children. We teach when we inform and explain things to our family and friends; we teach when we have intellectual conversations with our partners, and we teach when we mentor others.

This is even applicable when we write in our journal or talk to ourselves out loud. Teaching what we learn helps us learn at a very high rate.

Teaching is a powerful thing that shouldn’t be underestimated. When we teach what we know, we multiply our learning potential; we build deeper relationships with others and we make a huge impact in the world.

We can all incorporate teaching into our lives to help us become smarter, happier, and more fulfilled. Teaching is one of the noble things you can do in your short time here on earth.

When one person teaches, two people learn