Thursday, December 02, 2010

What is Education?

I believe that education is...
  • a near-fundamental human right
  • a process in which people learn to transform data into information and information into knowledge
  • a political activity
  • a drawing out of the mind's awareness
  • an attempt to develop reflection and self-reflection
Actually there are many things that education is. Not all of them are good things, and yet, at its core, it is a necessary thing for any real life at all.

Note that I'm not answering the question, "What is an education?" I'm not even giving a detailed enough answer to my original question. But it is a question I ask myself as often as once a day.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Augustin said...

I recently heard my friend discuss about signal theory in Economics which posits that education is merely a means to signal a worker's ability rather than add any value to his/her true ability.

Just popped into my mind when I read this post. Still think Econs is a whole load of hogwash though.

Thursday, December 02, 2010 5:31:00 am  
Blogger Trebuchet said...

That would be true when you think of 'Education' as a label (you know, the header of the section which you fill in in your CV) as opposed to a process.

And as I once said, things like Econs are just ways of 'scientization'. They make human transactional behaviour into a pseudo-scientific area of knowledge.

Thursday, December 02, 2010 1:38:00 pm  
Blogger Albrecht Morningblade said...

Near-fundamental? No 'near' about it, to me. Of course, there are those who will ignore any amount of teaching, even when served on pretty shiny platters. Some learn from experiencing the raw data themselves, others from observation, and yet others never learn at all.

From all that I've experienced, I'm inclined to believe that there are only shades of grey. And some things are harder to define than others. Unfortunately, education is one of these topics. As is justice.

Monday, December 06, 2010 3:17:00 am  
Blogger Trebuchet said...

'Near-fundamental' because you have to be alive to be educated, so life (and the immediate adjuncts to its survival — food, water, shelter) = fundamental. Education, communication are near-fundamental because organisms die in the long term without them. But things like 'freedom' are not fundamental, they're just measures of fortune and resources.

Sunday, December 12, 2010 6:40:00 am  

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