ABSTRACT
Over millions of years human beings have developed fabulous abilities to acquire possibilities of understanding and acting, which by far surpass what other species are able to – it is not too much to say that humans are created as learners. But we are at the same time also doomed to be learners, we have no possibility to avoid learning, although we do not always learn exactly what we ourselves or others have intended. In contemporary societies we are also enforced to be learners. In nearly all countries there is compulsory school attendance, and in addition to this there is a lot that we all have to acquire in order to be able to function in daily life and various specific contexts. It is to a great extent this direct as well as indirect enforcement that in various connections can make learning problematic. We cannot restrict ourselves to learn what we like or meet by chance. Learning is both an individual and a societal matter.
