Blog Post #1: Let's not Generalize

I've always been a bit of a book nerd. When I was in elementary school, I was that one odd girl that would much rather read a book during recess than go out and play with the other kids. Because of this, I've had the opportunity to live a hundred different lives, learn a rather broad vocabulary, and learn how to deal with all kinds of problems in all kinds of imaginative ways.

Since I could read, I have been a book lover and I don't see that love dwindling in the near future.

But I am very much aware of the fact that not everyone shares my passion for books. Not everyone can stay somewhat stationary for hours on end to be able to finish a book. Most kids I know of just can't be bothered with reading a book for fun because of the trauma instilled into them from being forced to read books as part of the school curriculum.

But there is a misconception about what a true education is. Most hold school diplomas and good grades in great regards. But the fact of the matter is that a true education isn't the kind that can only be taught through books, homework, and presentations in a classroom. That's just half of it.

In class, we read an article titled "What True Education Should Do" by Sydney J. Harris. And, as we read this, I couldn't help but begin to think that, while the article tells us what education should do, it doesn't truly shed too much light on what a true education is.

Merriam Webster's definition of education is: "The action or process of teaching someone especially in a school, college, or university."

This is a very simple and underwhelming definition that doesn't give the act of educating much justice. Acquiring knowledge and, through this, being educated is so much more than just sitting in a classroom and having information crammed into someone's head.

As a human being grows, they acquire all kinds of knowledge. Formal education is the one taught in classrooms, the kind that sometimes leaves students overly stressed and harrowed because of how extremely daunting it can sometimes become. Because of the excess work and high demand for getting good grades, sometimes kids end up not even wanting to go to school and begin to see it as an enemy. And this is the kind of education students scorn.

But, fret not, school haters! A formal education is only half of the whole that makes up a true education!

Informal education is the kind that we acquire unknowingly through our experiences all throughout our lives. We gain this knowledge from friends, family, random strangers on the street, television shows, video games... We gain it from anything, really. And we don't even notice that, on a day to day basis, we learn new things that could eventually be used in all kinds of situations we might come across in our lives.

Education isn't just the topics taught to students from a rigid curriculum to try and ensure good grades. It is a combination of both formal and informal education that helps shape a child into a knowledgeable and productive member of society.

When speaking of education, we can't just think of stuffy classrooms and crammed school hallways. We must open our minds to the fact that we learn a little something every day. And this is the knowledge taught through the School of Life.