Education: Investment or Enlightenment?

[Nolerama]

In another thread, I noted a difference in the way I thought about education. In my point of view, education is a way to open your eyes to the world around you. I call it "knowledge for knowledge's sake" for the purposes of this thread. It's not the only way to experience and understand the world, but one of them.

The other poster felt that it was more of an investment. He has a very good point. In order to make money, you need to spend it, and like my point of view, education is not the only way, but definitely one of them to make money.

Now, I see merits to both ways of thinking, and I don't necessarily rule the "investment" stance altogether (it makes sense), but lean towards the "knowledge for knowledge's sake" POV. This is not a question of whether or not education (of any kind) is good, but a question to you as readers of this thread: how do you think education benefits one in life?

It also brings up questions like "If learning something doesn't pay out materially for me, is it worth it?"

or

"Is it my duty to learn as much as I can in life in order to understand it better?"

 

[Empty Hands]

Most people don't pursue education for its own sake, "enlightenment." Most pursue it either because they have to by law or for the ostensible future economic benefits. What we can hope for at best is that some enlightenment creeps in along the way. After all, if all you want is education and enlightenment, a library card is free while a college education costs many thousands of dollars a year.

 

[jks9199]

To me -- there are at least two types of education, with different goals and purposes.

One type of education is all about simply becoming a well rounded, "educated" person, able to think and reason, with reasonable understanding of the world around them. It's about personal betterment. It's the stuff you learn because it's good to know -- not necessarily useful. This is why an engineering student has to take an English class or get humanities credits, for example.

The other type is more goal specific. You could call it training instead of education. It's typically directly relevant to a job or task, and is often (though far from exclusively!) hands on.

The training received in a police academy is an example of the second, goal oriented type of education. What's missing from it is the rest of the stuff that rounds out a criminal justice degree. Or you could say (unfairly, but it's a workable analogy) that it's part of the difference between an EMT and a doctor.

 

[DavidCC]

I think you might be distracted by the money.

"investing" means, using your resources to improve the value of your assets. (notice that this does not mention MONEY)

Buying stocks raises the value of your stock portfolio for example. Remodeling your kitchen means you can sell your house for more money of example. Working out at the gym improves your health for example. These are all investments

So, learning something, whether you invest money (tuition) or time or both, raises the value of your self. So, is it possible to learn something
that does NOT improve yourself? Only then could you say it was "for knowledge's sake" only.

 

[stickarts]

In my view one of the biggest benefits of getting an education is not just the education but that you are learning how to learn, and also demonstrating that you can follow through and complete something. It is an investment but it is more expensive in many ways not to have an education.
Throughout history many of the downtrodden were those that had no education.

 

[Kacey]

It also brings up questions like "If learning something doesn't pay out materially for me, is it worth it?"

or

"Is it my duty to learn as much as I can in life in order to understand it better?"

If I had to choose one, I would choose the second one; sadly, too many students today choose the first one - and that includes the students I teach in middle school. The part that many people miss is that, while you may never use a particular skill or piece of information, while you are learning it, you are also learning how to learn - how to find the important pieces in what is presented, how to apply new skills, how to filter new information through old information, how to apply previously learned skills to new situations. Much learning that occurs after high school (or sooner, for many teens) occurs in a much less formal setting - but it still occurs.

Per Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: learning
Function: noun
Date: before 12th century
1 : the act or experience of one that learns 2 : knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study 3 : modification of a behavioral tendency by experience (as exposure to conditioning)

Main Entry: ed·u·ca·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌe-jə-ˈkā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 1531 1 a: the action or process of educating or of being educated; also : a stage of such a process b: the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process <a person of little education>2: the field of study that deals mainly with methods of teaching and learning in schools

Note the definition of education - yes, school are mentioned, but not as the sole location; and note the definition of learning - no location at all.

People learn all the time, every day and everywhere they go - now, formal education is another question, and, I suspect, what you were really asking about. But even so, I stand by my answer earlier in the post - all learning has value, regardless of the cost, and the investment in time is worth it.

 

[morph4me]

I've never really given it much thought, and now that I am thinking about it I guess I see it as combination of both, I enjoy learning new things, if they end up being useful at some point, it was an investement, if not it was knowledge for knowledge's sake, either way I win.

 

[Sukerkin]

Learning is constant, or it should be. If you stop learning then, in my opinion, you stop growing and you may as well stop living because you have reached the limits of your mind (note, barring disease or accident, that should never happen).

Goal orientated learning is fine when it comes to employment but it is a waste of your mind not to be constantly asking the 'Biblical' questions of who, what, where, when, why and how.

I consider nothing I learn to be wasted. The synaptic connections that are formed when I commit somethng to memory cost me nothing but the energy from the food I would consume anyway, so I don't lose anything and enrich my view of the world. A genuine 'no lose' situation.

It is true that some of the things I learn are depressing but I still feel that in the long run it is better to know than not.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Education to me:

1) Investment in my future. I will have more skills or knowledge to use in marketing myself for future opportunities.

2) Continuing education to keep abreast of new technology or improvements.

3) Enlightenment that can come in multiple ways. One can learn something new that makes them much more marketable. They can also find inner peace or tranquility or at least serenity.

4) Formal education is somethign that can be documented and shown that you have the training or education. Hence why college degrees and advanced college degrees are important. Of course sometimes one needs a PhD to get a job while others might only need a BS.

To me I try to learn all the time but that is my mindset. I think of it as investing in myself and also into my future. I hope that everythign Learn helps me in the end. It may not bring enlightenment right away or ever but it might be useful at some time.

 

[DavidCC]

the idea of useless eduation ("knowledge's sake"), or learning something that does not make you a better person, seems very odd to me. What could you POSSIBLY learn that did not make you a better person?

Knowledge does not have a "sake". Even learning something that you NEVER use, never make a dime from, makes you a better person. So the idea of "for knowledge's sake" to me is nonsense. IF you are "enlightended" then you are improved and therefore you successfully invested in yourself.