Of Learning, Knowledge and Education

A question was popped to me yesterday that inspired me to write this post.

That question was, "Why were we educated?"

You have to admit it was a rather simple question, one would have simply said to get a good paying job, to advance in my chosen field, to be better armed and prepared to face greater challenges or responsibilities.

However, the first thing that came to my head was because I loved to learn. Education gave me the training as well as the opportunity to see things and approach things differently - with analysis and caution and knowing that a single act could have varying effects and impact not just to the subject but other connected aspects as well. It thought me to be critical, observant and discrete as situations called for. My answer to that one sentence of a question was a paragraph - a synthesis of things that I have learned.

Then the person who asked me the question said, "Its simple, really. You went to school so you learn how to think." He went on to say that all the stuff they taught you in school, you're only using bits and pieces of that. Then one more from the group said, "Since I graduated, I began questioning the methods of teaching."

They were simply stating their opinions and beliefs and I respect that. Only it sparked a debate within - not to disprove their opinions but to express a greater understanding of the importance of knowledge, learning and education, after all the years I spent studying I think I should know better.

Well, they were right when they said that they teach you how to think in school. No, let me rephrase that: education itself challenges the mind to think. As Einstein puts it, 

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

Socrates also agrees,

"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."

Education is not just about knowing, it is understanding that the human mind is capable of basic grammar and mathematics, that it can be trained to do greater things.

That more than memorizing, history is a reflection of your past to help you see into the future. It defines behavioral and social sciences, helps one identify culture and tradition and establish an identity not just as person but as a family, a society, a people. Economics is more than just theories - its the theories that need to be understood in order to analyze a certain pattern or order of things. Algebra, Geometry and Calculus involves analysis of the expressions and the problems - the same analysis that is required in logic and philosophy.

To question is good. It means one is trying to understand, however has one taken steps to bridge the gap? I guess that's when the importance of the willingness to learn come in. Because you don't stop where society tells you to stop. Learning after all is a lifelong process. An educated person may have the necessary papers to support professional requirements but to say that it makes him knowledgeable is non-sequitur.

"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." ~Jim Rohn

Indeed, this will make a lengthy debate but at the end of the day its one's ability to adapt and use his capacity to think that will determine the level of education he has been able to instill in himself.

"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions." ~William Allin