On Education

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
William Butler Yeats

We live in what most would consider an educated society. Historically speaking, more learning and knowlege is available to more people than in any previous era. In the Western world and even much of the third world, literacy rates are extremely high when compared with historical averages. While many in poorer countries are still not able to afford a formal education, in the West, school is something we take for granted. Not only are children expected to go to school, it is required by law.

One of the unfortunate side effects of this trend towards universal schooling has been the synonymous use of the words school and education. "He's educated," "I'm getting an education," "parents should start saving now for their child's education," etc. These are all phrases we hear and use, and they all refer to formal schooling. In the minds of too many people, these two words seem to have the exact same meaning. Getting an education means going to school.

For example, I'm an avid reader. I love books and I buy as many as I can. I'm constantly surprised at how surprised other people are that I read so much. Often if a friend or an acquaintance comes over and sees me reading a book they'll ask "what class is that for?" Now this seems a natural enough reaction, since I am currently attending school, but when did we come to see reading as something we only do when we have to?

Historically education was for the elite. Throughout most of the world, the wealthy landowners and aristocrats were the ones who received formal schooling while the rest of the population struggled for subsistance. China was an exception to this rule. Throughout most of its history, the royal courts and positions were open to even the lowest peasant if he could prove his merit by passing a series of difficult and extremely competitive examinations. Normally parents would select one of their children who they thought was particularly bright to train for the exams. The rest of the family would work so that they could afford to hire tutors and support the child through the preparation process. If he were successful, the enitre family would benefit.

This system found its way to other Asian countries and the same process ensued. This probably has a lot to do with the reverence so many asians have towards education as well as the high expectations they seem to have for their children (at least compared to American parents.) For thousands of years education was their one shot at lifting themselves from abject poverty into the ranks of the elite.

The problem is that today things don't quite operate that way. We no longer live in a world where the only way to be successful is to please those in power and hope that they shower us with favors. We don't have to rely on the hand of our masters to feed us. Under a market order, people are payed according to how productive they are and how well they help others meet their needs and achieve their goals.

In the Chinese model, education was mostly about preserving tradition and producing conformity. This was because its sole goal was to produce bureaucrats. Our modern education system, while proclaiming completely different goals, has a very similar effect. One problem is that our schools are government run and regulated. They are publicly funded and not sensitive to the demands of their consumers. The other part of the problem is the sheer numbers being dealt with. It is near impossible to foster real, quality learning in a crowded environment where a few teachers must deal with many students of varying desires and abilities. Such is the nature of classroom learning.

However, this is where we need to seperate school from education. Because the American school system is inadequate does not mean Americans must go uneducated. In the words of David P. Gardner, President of the University of Utah, "Much that passes for education ... is not education at all but ritual." What is learned in school may be beneficial or it may not. Our school systems are still designed and run primarily to produce conformity, "tolerance" and sameness of result. As Ezra Pound once said, "Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding."

If we do not "insist on knowing", if we are not filled with the desire to learn, and if we don't seek out this learning on our own, we are not educated. The type of education which is truly valuable takes place outside of the classroom on an individual basis. It must not just be something we do. It must become a part of who we are. It is not a checklist of grades given, tests passed and degrees received. Rather, it should become a habit.

We cannot entrust something so important as our education or the education of our children to the state. Ultimately, each of us must bear the responsibility for our own learning. In an increasingly competitive world this is imperative. Billions of people in developing countries are just now beginning to taste the fruits of an industrialized, market-based economy. They are hungry, they are hard-working, they are determined and they are willing to work for far less than we are. Contrast this with the apathetic, mediocre masses in western countries who see school as a chore, who read only when they must, and who feel that a college degree entitles them to a high income. This is not a recipe for continuing world dominance by western nations.

If we want to earn exceptional incomes and continue to have above average living standards, we must become exceptionally productive. We must possess skills, knowledge and abilities that give us a competitive edge. The factors that have worked to provide Western nations with a huge economic advantage over third world countries such as our imperialist foreign policy, the rise and popularity of socialism and communism, and a general lack of capital in the third world, are rapidly disappearing. This trend will close the income gap between the West and the rest of the world and eventually may even reverse the current situation. This is not pleasant news for many and is something to which the West is growing increasingly hostile.

So what can be done? Well, on a national or international level, probably very little. The public school system is an unfixable wreck and American and European economies are burdened by heavy regulatory burdens and astronomical levels of both government and consumer debt. Also, bankrupt entitlement programs will soon be the cause of intense political and economic pressure and domestic unrest. Couple that with democratic systems that make beneficial change politically difficult if not impossible and you have a pretty grim picture.

However, on an individual level, much can be done. A well-rounded, holistic education is the key to dealing with uncertainty. As Professor Douglas H. Thayer once said, "An educated person is one whom it is hard to fool—in any way. Not to be fooled by life is to be educated." Knowledge of history, economics, philosophy, finance, investment and a number of other things will help us better understand the world and how to cope with the vast changes that are coming. Also, developing skills such as writing, teaching, selling and public speaking can mean the difference between success and mediocrity. We don't need to be experts in all these fields. We should however seek to become experts in something.

I would recommend finding something you are good at and/or interested in and then going to work on it. Read, practice, study and work until you are the best or most knowledgeable person you know with regards to that skill or subject. Once you have done that, keep working on it and on developing ways to profit from it. Learn a foreign language or two as well. In an increasingly global economy, the ability to communicate effectively with those in other countries is a very valuable skill. None of this requires formal schooling or expensive materials. It can be done with a computer, some spare time and a library card. Find a mentor, someone who is successful in doing what you want to do, and learn all you can from them. Be creative, be aggressive, be ambitious and hard-working. Be all the things that the average person is not. Following the herd will take you right over the cliff with the rest of the lemmings.

This is not to say that school isn't important. University degrees, although they have definitely lost much of their value, are still a necessary starting point for most people. But we must learn to divorce the concept of school from the concept of education in our minds. Graduation does not mean an end to education. If anything it should mean the freedom to finally pursue the study of skills and subjects that we are really interested in. Everyone knows that high school and even most college graduates don't really know anything of value, that is unless they have taken it upon themselves to learn it in their spare time. As renowned speaker and author Jim Rohn once said, "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune." If we wish to compete and succeed in the truly global and highly uncertain world of the future, self-education should become our primary avocation.

Let me close with some of my favorite quotes about education.

”No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.” ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” ~ Edward Everett

“An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.” Anatole France

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” ~ Robert Frost

“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”
~Robert M. Hutchins

“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.” ~ G. M. Trevelyan

“If I had learned education I would not have had time to learn anything else.”~ Cornelius Vanderbilt