There is an orthodox view of what it means to be well educated, that a person is well educated who has gone through all the levels of the education system. The higher up you go, the more degrees you have, the better educated you are. The more knowledge you have, the more facts you have acquired, the more languages you can speak, the more important people you can quote, the more reading you have done, all of that falls within the orthodox definition of higher education. And, of course, a lot of that is legitimate; that is, to me a lot of that makes sense.
However, to me being well educated means not just a mastery of information, not just quantity of information, but being educated in (or coming to the conclusions of) what is important and what is not important, having a sense of what knowledge is significant, what knowledge is not significant, what knowledge is trivial and what knowledge has very powerful ramifications, what knowledge can contribute to the betterment of society and what knowledge is really just sort of static information lying there, whether in a book or in the head.
Skepticism or critical thought is one of the most important qualities that one can possess. I think it arises from realizing that what has been revered is not necessarily to be revered. The acts that have been romanticized and idealized and presented as marvelous deserve to be scrutinized and looked at critically. The actions of your country, the ideas of the people who have been held up to you as important thinkers, should be scrutinized.
Skepticism can turn into cynicism, but I think the way to avoid that is to recognize that ideas, people and actions that we have learned to be skeptical of have also been the objects of other people’s skepticism and other’s reaction, that these things have not gone unchallenged. In learning the history of such challenges, we see that very often in history people have shown their critical understanding of society by rebelling against what they saw and by organizing to change what they saw.
I think that the entire school curriculum, from kindergarten through graduate school, will be tolerated only so long as it continues to perform its institutional role. Universities, for instance, do not generate nearly enough funds to support themselves from tuition money alone: they are parasitic institutions that need to be supported from the outside, and that means they’re dependent on wealthy alumni, on corporations, and on the government, which are groups with the same basic interests. As long as the universities serve the interests of those powers, they’ll be funded. If they ever stop serving those interests, they’ll start getting into trouble.
Sadly as a result the institutions reward discipline and obedience, and they punish independence of mind. You’re not really supposed to think, you’re supposed to obey and just proceed through the material in whatever way they require. In fact, most of the people who make it through the educational system and get into the elite universities are able to do it because they’ve been willing to obey a lot of stupid orders for years and years. Some people go along with it to get ahead, others do it because they’ve just internalized the values. But you do it or else you’re out. Ask too many questions and you’re going to get in trouble.
There are children with behaviour problems -but a lot of them are just independent-minded, or don’t like to conform. And they get into trouble right from the beginning, and are typically weeded out. Or handed a prescription for the latest mind-altering form of Ritalin.
There is great value in every person developing individual thought. Although many of the factors stated above pressure people into accepting myths, dogmatism, conformity, and ignorance it is critical for people to understand their ability to think for themselves. This must be protected and encourage whenever possible. After all we know from history and even our day-to-day experience that blindly conforming to certain sets of beliefs and ideas leads to devastating effect such as unjust wars, discrimination, racism, genocide, sexism et cetera. If society is to be pushed forward to an increasingly moral state (if the world is to continue to be a better place), it will be done by critical and independent thinkers fighting for their moral causes. This is the only way society can be changed for the better.
