What It Means To Be Educated

I can picture being in Thomas Jones place and listening to a student wondering what the speaker is saying, their interest is not listening to the speakers, but walking the stage and the end commencement. As Thomas Jones pointed out; why did we not discuss the educated person question prior to commencement? We do need to answer the question: “What is an educated person?” (Jones)

Choices can make or break us depending on what we do. That is what Jon Spayde attempts to convey to his audience in his 1998 Unte Reader article, “What Does it Mean to Be Educated?” He goes through many examples and arguments that could possible answer this “surprisingly tricky and two-sided question” (Spayde paragraph 1). Although the actual arguments he poses throughout his article, he uses the rhetorical devices – ethos, pathos and logos, to get his readers to accept his purpose.

Attending college or pursuing a higher education is worth it because a degree ensures a stable, well paying job and provides a better quality of life. In Document A, “Earning and Unemployment Rates Based on Educational Attainment, 2015” compiled by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, a higher educational degree, such as a Doctorate or Professional degree, corresponded to a lower unemployment rate with a higher pay, while little to no educational degree corresponded to a higher unemployment rate with a lower pay. This means people who received a college degree had a better chance of finding and retaining a well-paying job because they are typically skilled in one profession that cannot easily be replaced, such as a doctor or engineer.

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

Quality in education is one of the most discussed issues around the globe among educational community. There is an emerging consensus that quality in education depends on the enabling inputs, educational processes, teachers’ abilities, and learners’ characteristics and the specific context.

An educated person with a degree will be prepared to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility (49). In life, one will need a way to support themselves, so one will have an occupation as a means to support themselves. For the employee to do their job correctly, they will need to learn how perform their tasks correctly. As Newman has stated, an educated person will be able to bring credibility to their position in the workplace because they have had an education, and have a degree. The educated person will be able to think clearly and quickly understand, and analyze the tasks that need to be completed. Also, they will be able to learn new skills to perform their tasks with ease because the educated person has learned study skills which helped them to grasp concepts more quickly and easily. Having a formal education gives one the advantage to have clear and thoughtful insight to the point that they could argue for the reasons for their opinions, as well as have a degree which shows that they have the right skills

In his text What does it mean to be well-educated, Alfie Kohn summarises the fact that our generation does not know what the fundamental meaning of education is – or that each and every one of us has its own definition, making it impossible to reach a common understanding. Our education system, which is based on the “learn and spit” theory, is pushing students to memorise a large amount of facts and statistics in order to determine their level of intelligence, all of that according to their specific standards. What I mean by “learn and spit” is that students work hard to learn all the required material, so that they can “spit“ it out on paper and never talk about it ever again.

Do you know what it means to be educated? Is it earning a degree in a certain field? Or is being educated is just the knowledge you gained through schooling? Many people have different answers to this question. I think to be educated is to have the willingness to learn from others, to be an avid reader and interact with texts, as well as being independent and having the motivation to improve.

The causes and effects of higher levels of education are very beneficial for one’s future. Higher education allows one to be more developed and prepared for the workforce that entails a more enjoyable life than less educated people. In the United States, educated people are 79% more likely to be chosen for a job over a less educated applicant (DePrince). Education allows one to gain many characteristics that are looked for throughout the working world. Success, emotional stability, personal connections, empowerment and personal responsibility are all effects of being highly educated. As a result of these effects of being educated, one’s life tends to be happier and more enjoyable than the life of a less educated individual.

    Being an educated person has given me more self-esteem and self-confidence. Education helped me to have more discipline, to be a more responsible person, and to fulfill the objectives that I have set. It also gives me the opportunity to become an independent person and to have a well-paid job.

To be “educated” you must have self-awareness, knowing where you stand in society. Do you?

Going to college can help with future earning and how well someone can support themselves or themselves and their family. Going to college can help with earning because the more education someone has, the higher the chance of getting a good and well paying job and the amount of earning can help with financially supporting a family. Getting a job for someone with a less than average education can be hard because of paying bills and supporting themselves by living paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. According to the BLS data chart, someone with less qualification than a high school diploma has the median weekly earnings of $472, as compared to a person with a doctorate or doctoral degree, who would have the median weekly earning of $1,623 (“Education

A person is more likely to be more successful in life when attaining a higher degree. They can pursue a successful career that they are passionate about. Higher education is beneficial because no matter what you choose to do it will always be there to back you up in the future. Having a college degree can help you with financial stability as well. But, in today’s world, does having a college degree mean you can get any job at any given place or time? Not always will you find jobs that need certain degrees to be placed in jobs. Many places prefer no degree than having one. Some jobs require something even higher. There are a few limitations on having higher education. Also, by having higher education, it does not necessarily mean a person knows everything. You may have little to no education and still learn and know more things than someone with higher education can. For example, in Blue-Collar Brilliance, Mike Rose; Rose’s mother had dropped out of school to help support her family in a diner. She did not need school or a degree to develop psychological skills. She knew how things worked in a person by socially connecting to them. “Her tip depended on how well she responded to these needs, and so she became adept at reading social cues and managing feelings, both the customers’ and her own.” (Rose). That goes to show that higher education is not always needed in workplaces that use more connection to humans

What is education? A seminal question that has been raised since ancient times. Certainly, the Ancient Greeks (Athenians) had an idea of how education worked take your upper class males, teach them to read, write, quote literature, play and instrument, and become a proficient athlete. The purpose was to study to become an effective citizen, not for a trade. Females learned basics enough to manage a household, rarely more; males of the upper classes learned to participate in society, others learned a trade or became what their fathers had been, etc. (farmers, metalworkers, fishermen, etc.) (Konstam, 2003, 94-5). Traditionally, education in the United States holds that it is facts that are important, as opposed to a way of thinking and utilizing those facts. The teacher lectures, the student reads, the student regurgitates, passes, and the cycle continues. Are there alternatives to this approach that will push educational theory beyond the bounds of such a narrow focus? And if so, why are these theories seen as delaying adulthood?

Our team likes this definition of an educated person. We understand that if you go to school, you will learn a subject well. But we also understand that many of us will see career paths that are not traditional, or linear in nature. We will work in fields that are not what we studied. If all we learned was basic skills and knowledge, we would cease to be educated the minute we stepped away from our chosen field of study. What the Michigan State University is trying to say is that education is more than just learning a few things to get a degree. Education being an educated person really does mean being able to continuously learn. To have knowledge and to know how to use it are both components of being educated.