What Does It Mean To Be Truly Educated

Many claim to be educated people. But what does it mean to become an educated person? An educated person is not the one who has a high GPA or scored advanced on assessment tests. To be educated is to accept the idea that a person does not know anything until he or she opens the door to learning different aspects of life. School is not the only way of seeking knowledge; education derives from different activities like exploring other peoples’ ideas, thinking creatively, learning from one’s past mistakes, and learning skills that may help you survive and maybe succeed in life. Many people push their kids to succeed academically by preventing them from doing the things they enjoy and setting goals for them. According to Yale Professor Amy Chua, Chinese people do not allow their kids to “get any grade less than an A,” also they are not allowed to “choose their own
extracurricular activities,” many of these Chinese parents believe that their children can be the “best student,” and that “academic achievement reflects successful parenting.” Whereas western parents think, “stressing academic success is not good for children” and “parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.” But in order for a teen to have fun learning, he or she should have the privilege to take any class inside or outside of school that appeals to them. Moreover, most of the schools appraise their students’ academic achievement by announcing their winning prizes in their newsletters and with that came the question of, is academic success a measure of education? Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work, stated, “In this world, an ordinary life has become synonymous with a meaningless life,” and “extraordinary is often what the general public views as success” claims Jeff Snipes, co-founder of PDI Ninth House. This means an average student is far from perfection and far from educated, which is not true. According to Peter Gray Ph.D., from Freedom to Learn, many students “now view a C, or sometimes even a B, as failure,” high school and even colleges has become a system of producing machines instead of people that are free thinkers. Academic success is not enough alone to become truly educated, according to Alina Tugend from The New York Times, “life doesn’t have to be all about public recognition and prizes, but can be more about our relationships and special moments.” To be truly educated is to be humane, to be considerate to others, to understand of one’s self, and to seek awareness because a huge part of education is the use of knowledge.
According to the article “What Does it Mean to be Truly Educated” from WordPress.com, an average student can become a well-educated person if equipped with the necessary righteousness; “virtuous character is more desirable in a child than head knowledge.” Also, according to the article “What Does it Mean to be Truly Educated,” “Most schools seem concerned only with filling a child’s head with facts, pushing them on through one grade to the next regardless of knowledge retention, and teaching them how to stand in line and ask permission to go to the bathroom.” Many schools are forgetting the fact that education is not pushing kids to get A’s, but giving kids the knowledge that they
need. Education is not something that can be measured. To be educated is having the ability to listen carefully, think critically, and ask questions. By asking questions one can better understand and set goals of learning. A person should agree that children should have opportunities to learn and engage in a lot of different activities like arts, creative subjects, logical thinking, and why things work the way they do, “the children would have to learn to be more self-directed,” and “that they should be allowed and encouraged to study things that interest them.” Conclusively, one must study their knowledge to protect it from weakening and help it gain a better understanding on many topics and ideas. The misunderstanding between knowledge and education is very common. Knowledge comes from facts, material, and skills obtained by a person through years of experience, whereas education is having an understanding of many things. There are many similarities, but in order to declare education, one must make sure that he or she is commendable of such a title to call himself or herself educated.