Learning usually implies that one studies, opens a few books, goes to lessons to receive info on some still unknown topic. Researchers would like to know why a large part of our conversations is dedicated to explaining something to someone. We explain why things are bad or good, why we are happy or unhappy, why things took a certain course. These are all explanations that look backwards to events that have already occurred and so should not be particularly useful. It should be more useful to think forwards and plan the future. It appears that when things are explained, something useful happens for the explainer. Even if the explanation does not bring anything new on the subject, the simple act of thinking about a certain issue and explaining it so that others understand, helps the one explaining get a better idea of that issue. You learn new things about past events simply by thinking about them. Might it be that the explanation simply reinforces our biases and mistakes? One of Aesop’s fables was read to a group of children. The message was that patience is a virtue. At various points of the story the reader stopped to ask the children some questions about what was read without commenting the replies. Another group of children listened to the same stories but the questions the reader asked had yes or no replies. At the end the reader asked the children what they believed was the message the story carried. Almost all those who said that patience is a virtue (or something similar) belonged to the first group. Only they had had to think about the various aspects of the story. The second group just had to remember facts without thinking. The kids of the first group had worked out a concept that had never explicitly been said in the story. “Kids listen when the teacher explains” is outdated. “Kids listen when the teacher explains because soon you will have to explain” is the right way.