Some say that experience is the best teacher. Others insist that experience without theory is critically inadequate. Discuss both views and give your opinion. Use examples from personal experience or knowledge when possible.

When some declare that experience is the best teacher, one must ask what the assumptions are.

If it means to the exclusion of theoretical knowledge, then it does not take into account fatalities and injuries resulting from attempting tasks where the knowledge of underlying theory is necessary. In our outlying islands, many have died or suffered the painful and permanent physical debilitation resulting from diving under the sea with artificial breathing equipment but without training. In the cities, at our high schools, children are only allowed to use laboratory chemicals under close supervision and with prior class lectures. This prevents the students from having accidents ranging from burns or toxic gas inhalation or the absorption of toxins through the skin or through ingestion.

On the other hand, when people say that experience is the best teacher after learning the theory, they are probably correct. This does not mean that experience alone is superior to book learning, but that experience - after theory - caps the learning. Experience sets learning into memory in a way that pure theory has difficulty doing. It is human nature that when we learn the theory, we want to put it into practice. Through repeated practice we perfect the skill and achieve mastery. If we do not gain experience, the theory often slips away and is eventually forgotten.

Theory alone is inadequate. Experience alone is wanting. Together, first with a foundation of theory then followed by practice and exercise, experience completes the learning process. Often enough, experience leads to the development of more advanced theories that apply to the subject and the process of learning continues.