The Difference Between Thinking and Education
Is thinking clearly a lost art?
Serious thinking requires the desire to want to understand life’s mysteries without attempting to put a price tag to the endeavor.
Education requires enrollment.
Thinking is a journey of exploration into uncharted territories.
Education is a process, through a curriculum with the prize of obtaining proof of attendance and successful completion, which is most often represented by a displayable certificate or diploma.
Thinking new things enhances life and keeps the mind young, energized, and engaged. It is closer in behavior to play than work.
Education can be a dreary slog. It is following the required well-worn path of education’s certified gatekeepers. In education it is more important to prove competency than to prove creativity and originality. (And today’s Educators are even allowed to remove proof of competency because their research has shown it to be racist).
Thinking’s purpose is to improve thinking skills.
Education’s purpose is to improve the prospects of getting a good job, one that doesn’t require much thinking and pays way better than earlier generations were able to achieve.
Often people are hired based on their credentials because employers think the level of documented education reflects a strong ability to think and perform at a high level of competency. It is also the case that many who obtain strong educational credentials believe this is proof of their higher level of intellectual competency.
Unfortunately, at some point early on many employers discover that their new hire had good credentials but but was lacking many basic life skills. They might have been heavy on book knowledge but light on the wisdom necessary to apply the information effectively in real-world situations.
If you want to learn new things, look for people who don’t think like everyone else, but are also grounded in logic, ethics, and morality. Sometimes they are annoying because they are nonconformists and sometimes they are nonconformists because they are wise and understand their thinking is antithetical to groupthink conformity.
How very true. Thank you for a wonderful post. Education just teaches how to think. It doesn’t make someone smarter necessarily. In fact sometimes it impedes original thought. (IMHO) if someone wants to learn, you can’t stop them. If they don’t, you can’t make them.