Serious thinking and learning require the desire to want to understand life’s mysteries without attempting to put a price tag to the endeavor.
Education requires enrollment. It’s mostly a generational thing. Parents want their children educated, but most don’t care if or what they are learning. This may be sad, but is understandable. Seeing a bigger picture they want their children to have access to future good employment. Certificates and diplomas can open doors.
Thinking and learning are a journey of exploration into uncharted territories. Children are made for this. They love adventure.
A lot of formal education is boring and set up to leave no one behind. This is a snail’s pace. Active children showing annoyance at the restrictive requirements of a classroom (mostly boys) are, in today’s hyped pharmaceutical environment, often drugged to calm and control them.
When I was growing up we managed this by a thing called recess.
To review — education is a process, through a curriculum with a prize — obtaining proof of attendance and successful completion that is then displayable by a certificate or diploma.
Sadly for many in the system, employers see through this and no longer associate a degree with someone capable of thinking clearly.
Thinking and learning new things throughout life enhances life and keeps the mind young, energized, and engaged. It is closer in behavior to play than work.
In most institutions of higher education it is more important to prove competency than to prove creativity and originality.
My recommendation for anyone who wants to learn and think new things, is to look for people who don’t think like everyone else, but instead are 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.
Also they begin thinking and learning from a certain starting point — a still point if you will…
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.