Educated....or not?

Educated….or not?

I have heard in recent days (weeks/months) several people say things such as “this person is a well educated person, how can they possibly believe x..y…z…?”

I find this INCREDIBLY intriguing, mostly because I have an advanced degree in education. That is, I was taught how people learn. How to educate. How people self educate.

A lot of education or learning on a topic comes from a question. Sometimes that goes into a hypothesis or a theory on the topic, followed by either an experiment or research and results in a conclusion on the topic. It’s filtered through a lens in your brain of ‘this is true for me, for my life, valuable to me’ or ‘this is essentially worthless knowledge or false for me, I can let it go.’  That is how the learning process works in a human brain.  You have to run the idea by things like morals you have in your life, data from research, applicability to your life, if you believe it to be true or useful.  No two peoples’ lenses are the same, so essentially everyone can have their own truth, or information that is completely horseshit to one person, can be valuable or applicable to another. It’s the blessing of being human, really.

In an article put out by Harvard, they seek to answer the question “what does the educated person look like?” Of course it’s variable based upon each person, but the core principles that they came up with included things like “deep understanding of themselves and how they fit into the world, and have learned what some call soft skills: complex problem-solving, creativity, entrepreneurship, the ability to manage themselves, and the ability to be lifelong learners,” and ends the article by saying “We want [an educated person to be] wise, creative, empathetic, engaged.” (Anderson, 2012).

So, with this, I would challenge-how do we get to be critical thinkers, lifelong learners, if we are not seeking out information? If we are not constantly seeking out challenges to our already established ideas in our heads? How do we expand our education without exposing ourselves to alternative viewpoints, examining if it’s true/applicable/useful and remain objective through the process? The answer is we cannot. We can stay comfortable, we can stay in our own ‘little mental box’ but we cannot become more widely educated. This does NOT mean that I think we should believe everything we read or watch. This does not mean that ‘conspiracy theories’ should all be taken seriously. But it does mean that we can entertain the idea, examine if it’s true/applicable/useful, and dismiss what isn’t. It also means that Joe down the street isn’t any LESS educated than us because he believes a differing viewpoint that us. We are all free to believe what we want. We are free to trust sources as we wish.

We are existing in an INCREDIBLY difficult time right now. We are sold massive amounts of information daily, from lots of different sources, each and every day. It changes daily (and from ‘trusted sources’ like the CDC even).  It is incredibly difficult to discern who to trust. It is just the reality of the current moment in time.

I’ve said it before and I will said it again, education is power. That means all viewpoints, because they expand the mind and create critical thinking are valuable. It does NOT mean that you have to accept all ideas. But you do have to run it through those checks and balances and see if it’s applicable. That is how we become more educated through this entirely hairy, scary moment in time.

Say humble, be kind. Don’t attack and say people are uneducated. Keep questioning. It’s that easy.

Anderson, Jill. (2012). ‘Defining the Educated Person.’ Harvard Graduate School of Education. Accessed May 8^th, 2020 via https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/12/04/defining-educated-person