By Shazad
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
Albert Einstein
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”
Socrates
It’s back-to-school time for young and older kids every September. Parents have been preparing their little ones for the new year of learning skills and making friends. Older students have been preparing themselves with the right notebooks, software, and trendy clothes. Soon this will be a distant memory as everyone graduates with their degree or diploma…but it doesn’t have’t have to be this way.
I believe the purpose of school and higher education is not simply the memorization of facts, formulas, and well-known works of literature. The true purpose should be to develop the ability to consume, learn, explain, and think critically about a variety of topics. It’s not enough to just memorize key facts about a moment in history or know state capitals and historical leaders. We need to understand the critical moments of history and why certain decisions were made. It’s important to also understand the many connections between seemingly unrelated things that brought about significant changes in healthcare, science, transportation, and literacy. There’s so much to explore and so much to think about, like why it took so long for certain social changes to occur and what were the conditions for a revolution happening at the time it did. Why didn’t humans figure out some obvious facts about the universe until very recently? Who were the actual authors of certain books, plays, and rules of law? I could go on and on with the many questions that come to mind, and so could you! That’s the joy of learning – it leads to more great and curious questions about the things we think we know or have at least come across.
Education should be viewed as the beginning of our intellectual journey rather than having an end date or a formal completion like graduation day. We should consider Phase 1 complete when we officially graduate with a diploma or bachelor's degree. There's so much more learning, thinking, and growth that is possible and necessary to become a well-informed and educated person. By considering human existence as an ongoing education process, we continue to study, think, and question the world around us as well as our own thought processes. Why did we think certain things in our 20s that clearly don't align with who we are in our 40s? How will our thinking, attitudes, and feelings change in another 20 years? What's influencing us? How much is the learning media or format shaping our education and where is it more harmful than beneficial? There's so much to understand, consider, and navigate in today's elementary schools and universities. For this reason, we can never say, "I'm done with school," because what does that even look like?
Ancient philosophers also remind us that learning and changing ourselves through education should lead to greater wisdom, which leads to true happiness in life. If the aim of our pursuit is simply a better-paying job, a piece of paper to hang on the wall, and some bragging rights about attending an Ivy League school, we've missed the point. On the other hand, if what you seek is a better understanding of the world you live in, your place in it, and ways to constantly improve throughout life, you've "graduated" to a higher level than most people. Some would even say you are soaring to new heights. Don't stop now—there's so much more to know and become!
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