edjoocation

When I was younger, I loved the Little House on a Prairie series of books. I still do, actually. Kelly does as well, so our shared copies (whattup scholastic book orders from Glenn Stephens, 1998) are turning that weird yellow color of old books and sometimes come in three separate chunks because the bindings have given out. Sorry Laura. Anyway, I loved them with an unironic, utterly geeky, earnest love that somehow did not socially isolate me as an elementary schooler and let's be honest, middle schooler. Rereading them makes me happy in a way now that isn't solely a product of the books themselves, but also comes from that feeling you get from re-experiencing something you loved from your childhood. Of course, you can never recapture the exact experience from then which is a little sad, but it's also kind of cool how the feeling itself grew as you did, into whatever nuanced thing you feel now. Maybe things aren't ever really lost, they just undergo metamorphosis. 

So I was thinking about education while reading it, and what an education really means. The social construction of what an education means has definitely changed over time. Back in the 19th century, on the frontier, families sought to educate their children by sending them to tiny schoolhouses taught most likely by young, teenage girls where they learned the very basics of what we now consider an education. I think it's very interesting to think through why an education was important for these families--after all, most of the children in these schools would grow up to be homesteaders, or storekeepers, or housewives. Arguably, what they learned in school didn't necessarily give them an edge in finding a job. Yet schools were still a necessity in the towns that were just being assembled. 

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that an education isn't important or a right for people whose lives don't get fed into the specialized economy. I can see how someone could say, well that situation you've just described is just as true of the 21st century, in less developed places, and thus you're discriminating and evil and should go eat some desert mud. But in fact, I think this just proves that collectively, humans in general have an innate desire to take in knowledge beyond what is immediately practical. 

 And what is "an education" exactly anyway? It sounds like some sort of pleasant thing you get, like a very well groomed pony. In its earliest evolution, I guess that would be proper grammar (hah, that one still evades me), spelling, reading, basic math. And somehow, in the learning of these specific things, you get lifted from lower to upper class. I can see this as a remnant of the days when only people wealthy enough to afford time off subsistence living/working for someone could get schooling, and that fact in itself made education a sign of social status. It's the same principle as scarcity driving value, in an economic sort of way. But an education differs from a diamond in that it can transform itself and the receiver by adding value; it's much more than just an economic commodity, especially given how it has no physical value. Also it's kind of chilling to just think of education as a commodity.

So maybe it's more a question of what you derive from having an education. Education has emergent properties, like neurons firing to thinking and quantum physics to macro physics. From the motions of going to school, sitting through class, doing homework, something more is formed. What is that "more?' Nowadays, we identify one goal of education to be a way of thinking, see "History teaches you crucial means to analyze problems, draw connections, etc." And obviously, it brings about good things (I sometimes talk about how ignorance is bliss, but I mean it very specifically, such as withholding information from someone can keep them emotionally happy, or not knowing an iphone 914G's internet speed won't make you compare your slowass iphone25G's speed with that. Ignorance--broad lack of knowledge/curiosity about the world around you, unwillingness to open your mind or entertain you could be wrong--that's heinous).  Education today brings about job opportunities, which are in themselves opportunities to live a life of comfort in relative material prosperity, as well as (hopefully) opportunities to spend your life involved with something you find intellectually stimulating and rewarding. So it seems to me as if education has two ultimate goals: one being the translation of education into bankable /material value and one is the more amorphous personal fulfillment/way of thinking value. But I guess you can't forget a third aspect, which is the social value attached to "being educated." 

However, as the world gets increasingly educated, the first two of those ultimate goals gets diluted. It's not a bad thing, that's just how it is. More people are going to college now and as a result, the norm gets lifted and everyone becomes more qualified for the same jobs. That's why you get teachers driving taxis or PhD baristas. An education becomes less of a guarantee for bankable value. What does it mean to live in an post-education boom world? I don't know. I don't know anything really, I'm just trying to find meaning by stringing together ideas born from some momentary thought sparked by an old book.  I do believe this: as people are exposed to more and more things to learn, and expected to know more and more, we start to take all this knowing and learning for granted. I sure as hell do.

So this is what i have determined. a) I have no idea what an education actually means. b) i have no idea what it means to be an educated person. c) i take all this for granted. 

and that's somethin at least.