In the past week, the topic of education has come up a lot. Two specific comments pissed me off more than is reasonably acceptable. Because I was unreasonably emotional, I walked away – actually, clicked away since these were things that I read on the interwebs. Both were offhand comments thrown out possibly without much thought behind either statement. However, they both indicate a surprising lack of understanding about the purpose of an education. So, today’s blog post is me ranting about purpose.
Let’s start with the comments. To be fair, I’ll paraphrase both in order to generalize for the larger point. In article, the author didn’t know that a certain thing had multiple definitions, which is fine and pretty common with these word things. However, the author then blamed her American public school educations for this. Now, granted, it could have been entirely sarcastic, but without context, I didn’t read it as sarcasm. It just sounded whiny and lazy. We will call that misconception one.
For the second misconception, let’s turn to that wonderful place of idiocy: Twitter. I read a tweet where the tweeter (is that a word) mocked an academic discipline because it didn’t prepare students for the real world, whatever that is. In my past, I was a college student, and let me assure that the world on campus is as real as the world elsewhere. While I wished to pass through a portal into an imaginary universe of harmony, the eighth season of Firefly, and gorgeous women with big libraries, I can assure you that college campuses are firmly rooted in the sad reality where Fox cancelled Firefly. Both point statements point to a fundamental understanding of the purpose of an education, in general, and an institutional education in particular.
Misconception 1: Education’s purpose is to teach you things.
In the past, I’ve made the statement that logic classes should be a part of every high school curriculum because high should be more explicit at teaching logic. While I do think introductory logic classes should be a required class, the idea is wrong. The education system1 is thought to teach you skills, but honestly it’s just a giant babysitting operation with government mandated requirements. 2 Fundamentally, no one can teach you anything if you don’t want them to.3 Schools provide opportunities to learn. But often we focus on the forest for the trees. We see the opportunities, the subject themselves, as the end goal, but it’s not. It’s really, really not. The goal, the overall purpose, is to give you the skills and tools to think. It is the process that matters most. All that is taught in the American education system, are tools to learn. It’s not there to fill your head with knowledge or facts. Schools are teaching you how to educate yourself.
The skills learned in the American education system range from generically useful to specific niche knowledge. Regardless of what career a person ends up doing from stand-up comedian to mechanic to physics professor, the ability to add is useful; whereas the ability to mathematically define the Schwarzchild radius doesn’t have a wide application. The interesting thing, though, is that because of the base skills, a nurse can read about the Schwarzchild radius or how to write a good joke or how to fix the brakes on her car. Curiosity is really what matters whether or not we learn. If you’re interested in something, you can learn about it. Learning takes work, and if you’re curious enough to put in the work, you can learn. Education’s purpose is to give you the tools to follow your curiosity.
Misconception 2: Academics don’t prepare you for the ‘real’ world.
I see this most in relation to a university education. It’s usually a partisan statement as well. It’s such a dumb statement because nothing prepares you for the real world. NOTHING. Every day is a new experience. Everyone is making things up as they go along. But again this statement tends to be aimed at college and, in particular, liberal arts schools. It’s supposed to mean that colleges don’t teach you skills necessary to get a job, as if having a job is the only point of life. But here’s the truth colleges, universities, and tech schools do not prepare you for the job you’re going to get. I went to school for engineering, which, I think, would qualify as skills. But I wasn’t prepared for the actual job of engineering. Because in college you don’t do engineering, you learn how to be taught engineering on the job. The aerospace engineering program gave me the tools to be able to learn how the company I work for actually engineers things.
All job applicable skills will be learned on the job itself. What you learn leading up to the job are just tools. I often say that my undergrad and graduate degrees simply taught me how to talk to engineers. Things I do now resemble what I did in college in the same way a kid riding a tricycle resembles a man riding a Harley Davidson. On the job training is an important part of learning a job, and it will not go away.
The Purpose of Education
The true purpose of education is to teach us how to learn. Doctors memorize many, many facts; so, one could say that medical schools just teach trivia. But doctors still look stuff up, and they’re always learning. Schools use subjects – they use facts and knowledge – to demonstrate the process of learning. Instead of viewing education as in the specific outcome, look at what it’s doing for you as a person. No one stops learning. Everyone I know continues to learn, and while it’s not the same as an academic education, it’s still learning. Education never ends, and the point isn’t the knowledge or the skills gained, the point is to make life more enjoyable by following your curiosity.
1. The American education system is the only one that I have experience with; so, my comments will be directed toward that.
2. This is not to say that teachers, administrators, and school workers aren’t doing their best to impart knowledge. Some of the hardest workers that I’ve ever met have been teachers.
3. Yes, this is a simplification. Sure, information can be rammed into your head, but anyone would agree that willfully participating is much more agreeable.