Paper i wrote for english. the writing prompt was "what does it mean to be an educated person?" impossible.
2002-11-01 ::: 8:41 a.m.

When I first encountered the prompt for this piece, my mind immediately focused on the general definition of what an “educated” person was. In my mind’s eye, I imagined a person who has spent time in some educational system, moving from elementary all the way to institutions of higher learning and earned some sort of degree stating their various accomplishments. I also considered the possibility of including into the definition the category of person who has spent considerable time on the streets among the people and gained a certain type of knowledge called “street smarts.” They certainly are educated, just in an entirely different field of knowledge than the typical academic. But after further contemplation, I settled on the most fitting description of what an educated person was. The “educated” person just simply did not exist.

It was that simple to me. The term “educated person” was in a sense an oxymoron because our education as human beings NEVER CEASES. As the saying goes, you learn something new everyday. Our education is a daily affair and is based more around how to live and how to act and what to think than what we know. Remember yesterday? There had to be something encountered that had some lesson to be learned. I can’t remember a single day that has gone by where I have not had at least one simple lesson to learn. Even just one situation that had something encountered that taught me something, no matter how minute the lesson learned was. And I’m positive the same is true for the entire mass of humanity that encircles this globe. The only time that someone is truly educated is when they are six feet underground, entrenched in the cold soil.

The only point where a person’s education is over and completed is when they are dead. How can the lesson continue if the pupil is no longer a member of the living? It can’t. And that is when the pupil is finished with their education and can be considered fully educated. Within this education and being educated there are certainly many levels. For instance, where one person excels in electronics, and is considered by their peers to be “educated” someone else can excel in music, or art, or speaking or whatever. The list goes on and on. People achieve different levels in different periods of time, but still cannot be considered educated because, unless dead, there is ALWAYS something more to be learned. It can come from daily interactions with people, the reading of books, or just the simple act of sitting down and watching everything pass by. The point is, education is beyond being labeled in categories of book smart, streetwise, or whatever other label can be thought up.

This just goes to show how our society works. We focus more on outward appearance and performance and never realize that, yes; there is a big picture. The kind of education that is essential, and that can never be fully obtained in our lifetime, is one that cannot be measured by a mere test created in the hands of scientists. Education is a myth.

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