Here is an article that describes what I now believe: http://system13.org/2007/11/09/what-makes-an-educated-person-educated/
Nice article. I like the point it makes about some people with bachelor degrees feeling all smart, but not knowing the basics of car mechanics. I heard a great quote which I think sums it up: "An educated man is someone who is acutely aware of how much he does not know yet." If you think you know more than you do? Uneducated. If you read one article and consider yourself an expert? Uneducated. It doesn't matter which school you went to or how much money you make. If you know the limits of your knowledge and avoid making unsubstantiated or ignorant comments outside these limits, but want to increase your knowledge to cover these areas, then you are educated. Your tertiary degree is irrelevant.
Hmmm....I'm kind of on the fence on this. I would not call a car mechanic "educated"...but I would say he has a lot of practical knowledge about cars, a kind of knowledge that the Shakespearean professor completely lacks. As in that funny comic Munchie posted, the professor might know all about how a truck is supposed to work, but the mechanic knows how to actually operate it, though he doesn't understand exactly how the hydro-pressure gauges work (I'm not sure there is such a thing, but just for the sake of argument). I think someone with a well rounded university education would know more about a variety of subjects, though he may of course not know the first thing about paving a driveway. The guy working on his driveway may know all about grades, and cement and tools and whatever else is needed to make the perfect driveway, but that is his only area of expertise. If this person does not read, is not up to date on current events, cannot have an intelligent and meaningful conversation about other subjects, I would not call him educated. Before I get pelted with tomatoes, I want to say that I think intelligence is on a whole different level. Intelligence does not have anything to do with education, IMO. I know a lady who never had the privilege of going beyond middle school. She still doesn't have the opportunity to go, but she is determined to know more. She reads whatever she can get her hands on, she follows all kinds of articles with interest, uses a dictionary, and what I like best about her: She strives to give her children the best she possibly can. She does extra projects with them after school, and even managed to get her daughter into a highly acclaimed charter school. Talking to her you get a peek into her brain working overtime trying to glean more. There is a hunger for knowledge in her. Now this is an intelligent woman. And she is educating herself.
Hmmmm...a few thoughts come to mind. One of them being the article seems a bit amateurish to me, but that's another subject. I think we have created such an education/certification/credentialed monster that we are now demanding tradesmen also appear "educated". I have an uncle who is recognized as an expert mechanic and was recruited by some major truck lines to work for them. He is now employed by the state as a mechanic. He was mentored. Fast forward 25 years. His son, who was mentored by his dad (the expert) and was capable of operating and maintaining his own professional race car by the age of 14, had to go to college to get a degree in high performance engines before he could feel he was "educated". What's wrong with us?
I personally think our whole idea of well-educated is slanted in favor of "book" learning. Why are skills undervalued when really we all need people in our lives with those skills? Of course, this topic has black and white, but there are also many shades of gray. For example, there are people who are book smart who can also work on their own cars. There are also mechanics who have book smarts. MomtoMusketeers: I have to disagree with part of your post. The guy laying a cement driveway may just know more than you think. My dad repairs air conditioners and heaters as his career (for many years now), but he is very knowledgeable about current events and history. He can also keep up a great conversation around many different topics. You also don't want to play Trivia Pursuit with him (or at least I am no match for him). I think we can argue whether someone is well educated or not until we are blue in the face- it may never be settled with so many different ways of looking at it. However, I think it is high time that people stop looking down on others who they think are not well-educated. I don't have a problem with someone wanting to have a high degree of education. I have a problem with someone who does that and thinks it is the only way to have a valuable life.
I like that. I wonder what kind of disservice we are doing our kids by not making sure they know the basics of car care. I know that many homeschoolers do make sure, but I am talking about the general population. Many schools are fine if the kids pass algebra, but can't make change or double a recipe. Many schools are fine if the kids pass history, even if they can't remember those same facts after the test or use them in relation to current events. Also, I wonder if some people consider a person to be well educated even if they have forgotten much of their education. A great number of people study a foreign language. A great percentage of them never use it and lose that ability.
Intelligence and education aren't always related, sure. I've a friend who used to be at Harvard, and he would have us in stitches with stories of some of the stupid things students would do. On average they may have been smarter, but there are always a few dud lightbulbs in the box On the same note, one of the most astoundingly brilliant mathematicians of all time, Ramanujan, was entirely self-taught, and had very little formal schooling due to living in poverty most of his life. You can be well educated in car maintainance but poorly educated in physics. To be well educated in general, I think you need a good pool of general knowledge, but more importantly, you need to be aware of how limited your own knowledge is. If you feel qualified to give advice in areas that you are largely ignorant in, then you don't realise how little you know (or how much there is to learn) and aren't well educated. As cabsmom said, a lot of what we learn at school is quickly forgotten. If we remembered it all, we'd never have any of the almost daily confusions about geography, grammar, history, and so on. Just because you learnt something once doesn't mean it counts towards how educated you are.
I never finished my degrees Life happened. But I do not consider myself 'uneducated' or 'poorly educated' No, I don't use perfect grammar at all times, but, unless I plan to write a book (which I don't) than conversational English works just fine. It doesn't mean I'm un or poorly educated. In all honesty, unless there is a HUGE change in our society/economy, I plan on encouraging my kids NOT to go to college unless their life's goal absolutely requires it (such as nursing) If they can, I'd much rather they do an apprenticeship or simply open their own business than get a degree just because it's what you are 'supposed to do'
I agree with you so much. My son mostly says he doesn't want to go to college and I am with him 100%. To go to college and sit through the drudgery for him and to pay for it and then not get a job in what he would like to do--crazy.
Ah, but I think what it all comes down to is judgements.... "highly intelligent" or any other lables is to say that in some way, that person must be better; hold more worth....etc. What do you care if your mechanic has a degree from M.I.T.? As long as he can fix my car, I could care less. Does it make him less of a person? Does that mean he has no value? NO Each person has unique gifts given by their Creator. What they do with those gifts is up to each individual person and where do I get off thinking what someone else should or shouldn't do? The only one I should worry about is myself. Is my value only worth 4 years studying to get a piece of paper? Does not each person learn something new every single day? I think what the author was trying to say is to stop and think before you make judgements and assumptions about someone's value. Society is pushing that everyone should have a college education and if you dont you are somehow "less-than" to the world. I say "pfffttttt". Because, I agree with Mike Rowe.... Down the road, you will see a real shortage of plumbers, mechanics, and other vocational/appretice type jobs..(the dirty jobs)....all because the younger generations have been led to believe those jobs are somehow "less-than" and inferior. No one is inferior, with or without intelligence. Just my two cents.
Good post, Squarepeg. I battled this notion within myself. When you are "gifted", you are indoctrinated to believe that you must, therefore, become something great like a doctor or...a doctor....It was only recently I realized that God gifted me with the ability to learn so that I could teach to each of my kids in the way they needed to learn and to help them learn how to teach themselves.
Square peg: I agree with you also. I guess I started this thread to battle the notion of "well-educated" being so supposedly superior to someone who works with their hands (who can be well educated as well). Some people prefer to work with their hands. It doesn't bother me when I meet a well educated person (going by the normal idea of that) unless they look upon themselves as being superior to other people. I think it is great when someone pursues education to reach their goals or just to learn if they are so inclined. I once met a man who was pursuing his second doctorate. He was a very down to earth man and even joked about it saying he was going to be a "paradox" since he would have two doctorate degrees. He didn't pat himself on the back and the only reason it came up was he was explaining why they were temporarily living in a different state. The problem I have is when some people are valued more because of the number of degrees they have of how high they went with their education. I say get as much education as you want/need, but remember that it takes all types of wonderful people to make this world go round.
I was 5 cdredits away form completing my Associates Degree in Early Childhood ED and Special Ed, and all I can say I learned is how to manage a classroom. Hm. Am I undeucated? No. Not at all. I think most of college is politically slanted anyway. I ran into alot of classes who only taught one side of things, and it was definately a liberal point of view on most subjects. I'm sad to say that I'm in debt with the school and I learned next to nothing while I was there. Sad fact. Am I going to encourage college? Meh, not really. Let them lead where they want to go in Junior High and High school and start working on it then.
having lived both with a family of Car people ( not their job but their passion) and now with a non car people family, I know that its education about every part that is important. I try to instill this in my children that there is a LOT to learn about a car and things work, especially with the computerized engines we have now days! WOW talk about technology! If I hear a sound that is not right in my enegine, my 'practical knowledge' says something is nto right, but what I learned over the years of bringing my father coffee while he rebuilt a carborater ( pretty much no longer needed lol) or dropped a transmission to determine what was wrong with it... for fun! lol, ya my dad loved cars he rebuilt many as a hobby from the inside out. The man was educated in High School, he owned his own sub-grade construction business at one point was worth over a million dollars... but this is because he had a 'working knowledge' that grew into educating himself for the fun and joy of of it all. I think Education is relative. These days that mechanic has to get a degree to understand the performance engines! he has to know what the computer tells him is wrong with the car in order to fix it! Educated-- relative to the times?
Lol, Meg, as a (formerlly certified) teacher, I tell homeschool moms (non-"teachers") the same thing! 99% of what I learned in school was classroom management, and since they won't be handling classrooms of 30+ kids, they are just as qualified as anyone with a "degree" to teach their own kids! I remember watching Jeopardy with my g'pa once. He was a very "uneducated" man, not sure he even graduated from high school. He was a carpenter. One of the answers had to do with a Leghorn Rooster. He was absolutely SHOCKED that the contestant with a college degree didn't know THAT answer...EVERYONE knew THAT!!! I told him that *I* didn't know it, and he was quite disgusted with me over it!
I am trying to pass on to my boys that being educated, means being a well rounded human being. It doesn't just mean getting a college education. Being able to communicate with others no matter who they are, understanding different cultures and beliefs, and being able to take care of yourself and your family, are all part of this.
I agree with most of all the posts here. I don't usually run into snobby people who think they are better than me because of their education, but I know it exists. I don't think it would hurt me as much now if someone were to treat me bad because I am not as "educated" as they think I should be, but I may feel a little awkward. Sometimes I believe people can get all caught up in discussions about history, literature, theories, philosophies, and such that they don't know how to relax and just enjoy good company. I actually feel bad for people who always have their heads in a cloud so to speak.
