As I thought on the first question (what is education) I came to the conclusion that education is not text-books and hours of burdensome study, but simply the knowledge (and thus, ability) to do whatever the Lord calls each of us to do.
As to the second question, I wasn't' sure.
Here's what my Mom read to her "students" after asking us the aforementioned:
An educated person writes his own script through life, he is not a character in a government or corporation play, nor does he mouth the words of any intellectual’s Utopian fantasy.
Education and intelligence aren’t the same things. The educated person is self-determined to a large degree.
Time doesn’t hang heavily on an educated person’s hands. She can be alone, productively, seldom at a loss for what to do with time.
An educated person possesses a blueprint of personal value, a unique philosophy which tends toward the absolute, not one plastically relative, altering to suit present circumstances.
An educated person knows who he is, what he will tolerate, where to find peace. Yet at the same time, an educated person is aware of and respects community values.
An educated person knows her rights and knows how to defend those rights.
An educated person knows the ways of the human heart so well he’s tough to cheat or fool.
An educated person possesses useful knowledge. She can ride, hunt, sail a boat, build a house, grow food, etc.
An educated person understands the dynamics of relationships, partially from experience, partially from being well-read in great literature; as a consequence he can form healthy relationships wherever he is.
An educated person understands and accepts her own mortality; she understands that without death and aging, nothing would have any meaning. An educated person learns from all her ages, even from the last hours of her life.
An educated person can discover truth for himself; he has intense awareness of the profound significance of being (as distinguished from doing), and the utter importance of being here and now.
An educated person can figure out how to be useful.
An educated person has the capacity to create: New things, new experiences, new ideas.
Twelve Reflections on an Educated Person
~John Taylor Gatto
I think this is one of the best "sum-ups" (for lack of a better term) of education that I've heard.
I think this is one of the best "sum-ups" (for lack of a better term) of education that I've heard.
4 comments:
I love John Taylor Gatto's insights. So much of education nowadays is divorced from real life and morality, so this was a refreshing counterbalance.
I really liked it. (As if you didn't know.) It's waaaaay more sensible than the idea that a gazillion textbooks and 12 years of school will make you educated.
I still say math, reading, etc. have their places, but just because you know how to do schoolwork doesn't mean that your educated.
But you knew that. I just "had" to say it again. :P
Very enlightening! Thanks for all your sweet comments on my blog!
~Kaitlyn
You're welcome, Kaitlyn :) Thanks for YOUR comment. :)
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