Unlearning
If I refuse to learn from anyone who is not perfect from whom will I learn?
Given a healthy brain we all learn from others from the time we are born or even earlier. The prejudices that we develop along the way are learned behaviors. Even behavior proven inherited through DNA is learned behavior.
On the premise that any learned behavior can also be unlearned, it may be said that we glean any amount of knowledge from others if we are willing.
At some stage we naturally become more discerning about what we learn. It becomes easier to fix our ideas a certain way so we are not taken advantage of. This “fixed” idea is also the same behavior that hinders learning development.
A newborn baby soaks up knowledge like a sponge. It is only when a child learns what they “cannot” do that their learning starts to slow yet it is necessary to teach children some basic behaviors for their own safety.
It is too easy to reach far beyond the basics by imposing behaviors that stifle “sponge” like learning.
Some of it is accidental and some may be on purpose.
Accidental or not, the only guard that we possess is our own willingness to learn from all people. We must try to learn from the very people that we despise as well as the ones we trust.
All safe guards should not be hastily thrown out, but instead every thought and behavior should be examined on their individual merit. We should not as they say “throw the baby out with the bath water”.