Explain What It Means To Be Well Educated

If you look in the dictionary, you’ll find the definition of educated to be something close to this: having undergone education; characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning; based on some information or experience. But I haven’t found this to be particularly specific, or really helpful at all. As I’ve come to understand, being educated is transient, unless you learn to be, as a truly educated person is, a life-long learner. True education comes from yourself, from gaining an understanding of yourself, and from honing skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. These skills are what make a truly educated person, because they can use and further these skills throughout any aspect of their

In his essay “What Does It Mean To Be Well-Educated,” Alfie Kohn challenges the current standards that people consider crucial in order for a person to be considered well-educated and explores some interesting questions that help provide the reader with a completely different understanding, perspective, and possibility for standards of good education. At the beginning, Kohn explains how people can argue about the purpose of education, but then fail to realize and recognize whether or not education has truly been successful. Then, Kohn provides the reader with an example of his wife, a successful physician who completed her study for doctoral dissertation in anthropology from Harvard, yet still lacks some educational basics that people consider necessary factors to possess in order for a person to fit in the defined group of well-educated individuals. (Kohn 231-232). After that, Kohn explores some definitions that people set as essential measurements for determining whether or not a person is well-educated and explains why all these standard definitions fail to either evaluate a person’s knowledge or make a person knowledgeable. For example, many people consider test scores, seat time, job skills, and memorization of facts as indicators of well-education. However, Kohn explains that sitting in class for a certain amount of time, “reducing schooling to vocational preparation…to suit the demands of employers,” receiving high results on tests, and memorization of pieces of

One point this author makes is his mother did not had a formal education, but had the ability to manage her time, multitask, and perform her job competently.

What does it mean to be well-educated? Is a well-educated person someone who went to a good school? Does it apply to someone who got straight A’s is school and did well on standardized tests? Does it mean that they are smart or just good at memorizing their material and requirements for tests? If they are good at passing test by memorizing all the material but then forget it as soon as the test is done then what good was taking a test in the first place? Is a well-educated person the same thing as a smart person? If a person went to an adequate school and receives a good education then it would be concluded that they are well-educated but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are smart. It might just mean

In the light of above it become more complex to define the contextual meaning of “Well educated”

According to Alfie Kohn's essay "The dangerous myth of grade inflation," one of the most commonly-cited truisms in education today is that higher education is 'easier' than it was in the past. Critics contend that grades have become puffed up while student performance has actually weakened. Kohn believes this is a culturally-produced myth rather than a statistically justified reality. In fact, the notion that grades were less generously bestowed to students is a durable cliché which extends back to the 19th century, and is not merely relegated to our own era. Today, the perpetrators cited as the worst offenders are liberal professors from the 1960s who have lapped up a generally permissive attitude from that era. But "a report released just this year by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that fully 33.5 percent of American undergraduates had a grade-point average of C or below in 1999-2000" (Kohn 2002: B7). Kohn sees the anxieties about grade inflation as indicative of a larger cultural anxiety of what it means to be an educated person, and believes that a fixation on grades is a fundamentally misguided way to improve the American educational system.

It has been said over and over again that human intellect is important to have. As we grow older, we can see that this statement is true. Knowledge is a powerful attribute. Some people may argue that the only way to be an intellectual person is to have a piece a paper signed and noted by a superior official affirming you have done all the coursework within the field of study i.e. a diploma. Others may be at the other end of the spectrum and believe that real knowledge is something that we gain as we grow older and can be reinforced with hands on experience. The author Charles Murray, writes in his essay, “Are Too Many People Going to College,” people who go to college are strategically creating a separation in the American class system and

Growing up under the myth that “If you do not go to school you will not learn anything,” was the logic behind getting an education when I was a child. However, what should have been our focus perspective, was the quote by Ingersoll, n.d.), “It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.” That is to say, that there are countless people, who have an elite education, but have not, applied that education to their life. Moreover, they have failed to employ common sense in understanding the necessities of learning the fundamentals of their education. As a result, they are ignorant to the simplicity behind life from which to succeed, but have assumed that their Ivy League education has made them elite and well educated. Nevertheless, I am in partial disagreement with this way of thinking, and believe common sense and education should work hand in hand, because education without common sense is worthless. Furthermore, albeit an elite education and the extent of schooling is beneficial in success, the term well educated is having common sense, which is the key to sound judgment that opens the door of wisdom to receive education.

Does the phrase well educated refer to the quality of schooling you received or to something about you? Who gets to decide what it means? Is it a standardized test? Is it our test scores or memorization of facts? How much or how well we can remember at a given point in time? How much knowledge we ought to have? What could it possibly be? I think this society has given “Well Educated" a poor definition. Sitting in a class for a long time does not make us educated. Test scores does not make us educated neither does reading faster than others or solving mathematical calculations. Not everyone has to same knowledge of a certain thing, so why judge us on the same criteria. Does it denote what we were taught? If the term refers to what we know or what we can do then we could be poorly educated despite receiving a top-notch education, and if it is, then the numerous people constantly going to get an education in big name schools are unintelligent. In addition, if it refers to the quality of schooling, then many well-educated people sat through lesson that was too irrelevant for them to remember a few years later.

In the article by A. Kohn What does it mean to be well educated? (2003). Kohn begins with talking about his incredibly intelligent wife who is a physician, but when is comes to grammar and punctuation she fails miserably. He asked the question “What does it mean to be well educated?” (Kohn, 2003) Is it to be able to take a test well? Or be able to show what you know in a hands on way that makes you well educated. He then digresses into the Common Core State Standards that have been adopted by almost every state, and he asks if this is the right approach to judge being well educated. In the conclusion, of his article he states that learning needs to be desired by the individual and the means to do so. In my

What does it mean to be truly educated? Currently, education is based on grade point averages, standardized tests, and the length of completed courses. These are not incorrect ways to measure education through books and lectures, however, these methods do not measure common sense, life experience, or any other knowledge outside of what is taught through a formal mean. I believe that knowledge is best summarized through life experience and how each person absorbs it. Examples of this can be deduced into three age groups: birth – 13, 14 – 40, and 41 – death.

Education is the best way to learn to succeed in the future and to help America become great again. Education is the foundation for any career and for expanding one's knowledge of any subject someone might be interested in learning. If someone wanted to learn more about computer science; they would need to know all the basics in that field in order to learn all one can about the topic. But if schools are not helping students learn, and helping their students to explore, how can America change. Schools and educators need to help students see their full potential and help them to see how they can grasp for anything and that they want to learn.

To become an educated person, it takes time. Being educated has a lot to do with knowing how to present yourself, and how to talk to people. It is also great to know how to hold an educated conversation. Many people can be educated or become educated simply by studying or understanding at least one core subject. Anyone that is able to think clearly and manage emotions internally. Also a person who can be a great problem solver.

Education is one of the most important parts of a person’s life, and if someone does not have a good education then it will lead them on a path where they cannot excel. Where education is at today, there are many flaws that are preventing students from receiving an amazing education that they deserve.

All young children have a natural talent for creative process of information. It’s during the teen years that natural creative processing is replaced with the status quo. The status quo memorizes knowledge and forgets how to process it. In the classroom, memorizing is what counts. Standardized test reinforces the status quo. It kills creative processing ability. Status quo attitudes will follow them into adult life where they will have to ask their children for help.