More than any other type of learning, natural learning determines a person's character, identity, values and morals, personality, thinking skills, living skills, overall perspective and overall development as a human being. Natural learning provides the foundation for all the other learning a person engages in, and thus is a vital part of it. Before academic learning (learning prescribed by a school or school teacher) was even conceived of, the people of the world were being educated by the process of natural learning. Natural learning is, and will always remain, the most important form of learning.

Natural learning differs from academic learning, and from other forms of mandated, required or prescribed learning, in that it is done solely to please the learner. It is not done to please teachers, employers, parents, society, friends, family or anyone other than the learner.

Natural learning is the learning people do voluntarily to satisfy their curiosity, to increase their awareness and understanding, to develop their skills and abilities, to grow and mature, or for personal gratification or personal fulfillment. Natural learning often occurs as a byproduct of simply living one's life, but it can also be the result of a conscious effort to learn.

Natural learning is invigorating because the learner feels a strong personal connection to what is being learned, is ripe for it and has selected it. Things that are learned naturally are overflowing with personal relevance and personal significance. Whereas other types of learning are often dead affairs which the learner is not committed to or interested in. There is often a revulsion connected with them because they did not occur out of choice. The connection between the learner and the things learned is often poor at best.

Natural learning is almost always in harmony with a person's needs, wants, circumstances and natural inclinations. It occurs when a person is ready for it to occur, and not before. It is an extremely personal process in terms of its content, timing and method. It is idiosyncratic and unique for each person. It is of the person and for the person. It accommodates the person's self-development.

Natural learning is a very complex form of learning because it fits the person as well as a finely tailored suit or perfectly crafted dentures. It fits one's mind, personality, developmental needs, life-circumstances, preferences, moods and inclinations. This type of learning cannot be supervised by anyone other than the learner because no one other than the learner can know what he or she needs to learn from day to day, or what method of learning would be most suitable.

Natural learning could consist of reading, observing, thinking, interacting, experiencing, reacting, initiating an activity, experimenting, expressing oneself and so forth. It could consist of going for a walk to contemplate an idea. It could consist of challenging a professor's thinking or an expert's opinions. It could consist of reading one page of a book and mulling over that page for one year before reading any more of the book. It may consist of thinking about your life and avoiding reading books altogether for five years, then reading voraciously every day for the next five years. Natural learning could consist of learning through extensive socializing with people, or through working at many different jobs, or through pursuing an unusual hobby with great zeal and intensity. There are so many ways in which to learn naturally that it would be foolish to attempt to identify all of them. One can learn naturally by getting in touch with their feelings, by learning to be more objective, or through developing a special relationship with a friend. All of these types of natural learning and many others weave themselves into a complex fabric which ends up making up the mind and emotions of a person.

Natural learning is a logical and synchronized progression of a person's thinking, feeling, skills, awareness, personality, identity, overall perspective, and overall relationship to the world. As an ice skater improves her stamina, muscular strength, agility, technical skills and mental attitude in a logical and synchronized progression from the simple and easy to the more complex and difficult, natural ]earning occurs in a logical and synchronized progression from the simple and easy to the more complex and difficult.

The way a tree grows serves perfectly to describe the path of natural learning. Just as the trunk of a tree must precede the branches, and the lower branches must precede the upper branches, and the branches must precede the leaves, the natural learner learns in stages based upon the person's entire readiness and does not attempt to learn things the whole person cannot accommodate.

Natural learning requires appropriate conditions and circumstances to occur in an optimal way. If educators are going to be concerned with the development of the whole person, one of their jobs should be to determine what those optimal conditions and circumstances are.

Natural learning can be thwarted, blocked or undermined. If educators are going to be concerned with the development of the whole person, one of their jobs should be to determine how and when natural learning is thwarted, blocked or undermined.

Just as a Person cannot be in different places at the same time, the human mind commonly cannot attend adequately to both the natural learning it needs to be doing and the academic learning prescribed by educators. When there is a conflict between the natural learning people need to be doing and the academic learning prescribed by educators, the educator concerned about the development of the whole person will favor the natural learning that needs to be done.

Even though academic learning (learning prescribed by a school or school teacher) provides an important avenue of professional advancement and skill development in the education of adults, it should not occur at the expense of their natural learning. Because all youngsters are immersed in sensitive, complex and critical patterns of self-development, and because their learning is without value if it interferes with their natural development, youngsters should not be educated by means of a regimented or preestablished course of instruction. Since natural learning has provided the basis for humankind's development for thousands of years, and is ideal for safeguarding the sensitive, complex and often fragile minds of youth, educators and parents can best serve youngsters by becoming partners in their natural learning instead of devising a burdensome, demanding or incompatible curriculum for them which they all too often do not need or want.