Neither my grandparents nor my parents graduated from college, but each taught their children that education was critically important. Like many of my era I went back to school as an adult and completed my degree. I even went on for an MBA, although later in life. That importance was passed to my children who have now all graduated from college. Certainly formalized education is important and with the increase worldwide of college graduates, more jobs require it than ever. This blog, however is a much broader discussion of the wisdom of education. The goal of education is to teach one how to think so that they can be taught to learn. While the purpose of this process may be to teach them how to work, the basics are not as simple as you might think. Factual information has little appeal to the average human, who is searching for self-realization and happiness. An interest in learning anything has to be preceded by a recognition of the value of the information.When we were each born we learned to breathe in the first seconds of life. There was no teacher and the way we breathed only mattered to the extent that we survived. Later in life we find through some educational experience that there is a better way to breathe. Swimming class teaches you to breathe a certain way. Musical training for wind and brass instruments have a preferred way to breathe. Public speakers learn breath control. The point is there are ways to perform things that are better, and the knowledge of that better way is accumulated through a process called education. You can live without education, but you can live far better with it. By definition, education is the process of imparting knowledge or the obtaining of knowledge. It does not have to be a formal process but it should be continual. Curiosity about a broad range of subjects is important. Remember, the horizons of your knowledge is the frontier of your ignorance.
Arguably, the four most important basic areas are reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Much has been written about a plethora of subjects, but without reading skills you will not be able to obtain the words or numbers off the page. The same concept applies to listening, which is an active process far beyond hearing. The writing and speaking skills are demonstrations that you can apply what you read and heard in a society of many people. In this modern era of digital media, the visual aspects of learning has overwhelmed the verbal and is rapidly creating huge gaps in the lives of many people. Literacy is the ability to read, write and use language. The percentage of people around the world who were illiterate continued to drop over the preceding centuries but is now climbing because of this imbalance. Verbal knowledge is crucial to the expansion of your education. Visual knowledge can assist in the process, but when it is overused you're back to listening and speaking only (illiteracy).
A second area of concern for modern education is a growing notion that self-realization and happiness is more attainable without rules. If one can create ones own version of life, any experience can be acceptable. When applied to basic education the idea that words can be spelled and pronounced any way you want as long as you feel good about it is disastrous. The exponential result of this idea is that any fact is true, even if it is not. Discipline is required in education, just as it is in every area of life. You may feel like skipping school, or answering any way you desire on a test, but the result will be bad. Mae Carden, a great educator in the 20th century said it this way: "Control of emotions because of personal choice is the great lesson of life". Laws do not bend based on our whims. I may feel like I want to throw a rock in the air and have it stay there, but the law of gravity will bring it back to the top of my head in a painful way. There is no such thing as relative truth, just one truth.
The value of the information that brings self-realization and happiness is the motivation for learning, which follows learning to think. Galatians 6:3 says "For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself". 1st Corinthians 13:11 says "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things". John 8:32 says "and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" and in verse 15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments". He goes on in chapter 15, verses 11 and 12 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you". There is an entire Bible to read, study, understand, and internalize.
Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement, as long as the activity is meaningful. An ancient Chinese proverb says I hear, and I forget. I see and I remember. I do, and I understand. Education should affect your emotions, your ideas, and your behavior. I mentioned earlier that you can live far better with education that without it. That does not mean that everything you learn has value, even if it is factual. A balanced approach is suggested. Physical, mental, and spiritual subjects cover mind, body and soul. Continually learning is often done in informal ways, so it is not the formal classes that this message is focused on. It is the purposeful activity and prioritization of your time in response to curiosity about things you do not know that I am advocating. As eternal subjects will last longer, I'd suggest starting there. What you will find is that those subjects lead you to that self-realization and happiness that appeal to us as humans. My process has named it Christianity.
