Clever
It's a shame I have to write in words. Understanding words requires education. Not everyone has the same amount. Everyone has some, of course. Education is learning that enables us to do tasks. So, nothing to do with formal academic education at all.
This is really true, I can tell you, because I had some formal education. A lot less than most people in my field (or fields). But it still adds up to a lot of years - about 18 I think!
I have the feeling I learned a lot at the start, with the reading and the writing. But after that stage, it got confusing. The most frustrating part of school was this:
the teachers knew what they were teaching us, but they never told us what it was.
Yes, if they had only revealed the broader picture, I might have learned something. I remember two great shocks when at the end of two different terms I learned what the subject we had been learning was. In one year of junior school (this was year seven of school education) we always did a sort of researchy-type project which we made into a little book by the end of each term. 'Topic', it was called. Also the name of a chocolate bar which I can taste as I use that word. So, I happily wrote away the word "Topic" on the front of my book. "Tyopic?" "TYYYYYYOPIC??" the teacher exclaimed when she saw it. That's not much of a title, was what she meant. Call it by the title of the course: "Signs and Symbols"! An incredible shock for me and my poor shattering young mind. "Signs and Symbols"? I hadn't seen any of either. Obviously I had not been deciphering the signs or the symbols correctly. Why could we not have been told - was it so terrible that the victims of education be thought competent enough to know what they were learning?
Another one (this was a one-off, with a trainee teacher I think) was "Biology". I knew what biology was, but I didn't notice any passing in front of my eyes during the time we spent learning about it. Again, how could they keep it so secret until after we had finished? What were they trying to do to me? Help, or confuse me?
As for "Geography" - I knew the name of that subject from the beginning, but how all these unrelated things could be grouped under this one heading I could not fathom. I could have fathomed it, if I had had some input. But there wasn't any! On one page there would be a picture of a street of houses. On another, a rabbit hutch. Geography! Obviously!
In secondary school (years 8-12) I was allowed to know the subject. They even made sense now! But the learning was so SLOW. That's what you get with 30 people in a class, each not understanding something different. And still, the teachers not really believing we were capable of thinking. Obviously the young are for moulding, not growing.
Then at college (a prestigious "conservatoire", as they are known) I definitely learned something. I thought about it at the end, and I know I decided I had learnt five useful things. But today I can only remember two of those. (This isn't counting lessons with good teachers, just the education in general).
I really started to learn after I stopped studying officially. I said this to an RAM professor once, and she nearly died of an apoplexy. But after studying is supposed to be the time you stop learning and start applying what you have learned. For me it was the time I stopped being confused by people telling me meaningless unrelated things without revealing their plans, and started to get to grips with what I needed to know about. The things I had been starting to discover at college (because, whatever I was being taught, I was always learning on my own).
Because what you need is for you. Only you can learn it. And you are the one who knows what you need.
Looking at schools, it's a miracle learning starts at all. I suppose I did learn a lot really, but sometimes I would have appreciated a bit more help from the dispensers of this learning. Still, all thanks to my teachers, all of them. I am here thanks to you, good and not so good. I learned from you all!
That 'learning' part - that's the key. Learning is to have learned things, to understand them, perhaps even to have wisdom. But this is nothing to do with how many qualifications someone has, or how many words they know. Clever people, take note! (I doubt you can - being clever already, there is no need for you to learn any more).
If you say to me (and people do sometimes) "I'm just no good at this", then I can say "Maybe, but you know that. Look at the others - they have no idea they are no good at it!". It might look bad to you, but it's the start of learning.
Please keep your clever away from me. I will go with wisdom any day. Thank you!
This is really true, I can tell you, because I had some formal education. A lot less than most people in my field (or fields). But it still adds up to a lot of years - about 18 I think!
I have the feeling I learned a lot at the start, with the reading and the writing. But after that stage, it got confusing. The most frustrating part of school was this:
the teachers knew what they were teaching us, but they never told us what it was.
Yes, if they had only revealed the broader picture, I might have learned something. I remember two great shocks when at the end of two different terms I learned what the subject we had been learning was. In one year of junior school (this was year seven of school education) we always did a sort of researchy-type project which we made into a little book by the end of each term. 'Topic', it was called. Also the name of a chocolate bar which I can taste as I use that word. So, I happily wrote away the word "Topic" on the front of my book. "Tyopic?" "TYYYYYYOPIC??" the teacher exclaimed when she saw it. That's not much of a title, was what she meant. Call it by the title of the course: "Signs and Symbols"! An incredible shock for me and my poor shattering young mind. "Signs and Symbols"? I hadn't seen any of either. Obviously I had not been deciphering the signs or the symbols correctly. Why could we not have been told - was it so terrible that the victims of education be thought competent enough to know what they were learning?
Another one (this was a one-off, with a trainee teacher I think) was "Biology". I knew what biology was, but I didn't notice any passing in front of my eyes during the time we spent learning about it. Again, how could they keep it so secret until after we had finished? What were they trying to do to me? Help, or confuse me?
As for "Geography" - I knew the name of that subject from the beginning, but how all these unrelated things could be grouped under this one heading I could not fathom. I could have fathomed it, if I had had some input. But there wasn't any! On one page there would be a picture of a street of houses. On another, a rabbit hutch. Geography! Obviously!
In secondary school (years 8-12) I was allowed to know the subject. They even made sense now! But the learning was so SLOW. That's what you get with 30 people in a class, each not understanding something different. And still, the teachers not really believing we were capable of thinking. Obviously the young are for moulding, not growing.
Then at college (a prestigious "conservatoire", as they are known) I definitely learned something. I thought about it at the end, and I know I decided I had learnt five useful things. But today I can only remember two of those. (This isn't counting lessons with good teachers, just the education in general).
I really started to learn after I stopped studying officially. I said this to an RAM professor once, and she nearly died of an apoplexy. But after studying is supposed to be the time you stop learning and start applying what you have learned. For me it was the time I stopped being confused by people telling me meaningless unrelated things without revealing their plans, and started to get to grips with what I needed to know about. The things I had been starting to discover at college (because, whatever I was being taught, I was always learning on my own).
Because what you need is for you. Only you can learn it. And you are the one who knows what you need.
Looking at schools, it's a miracle learning starts at all. I suppose I did learn a lot really, but sometimes I would have appreciated a bit more help from the dispensers of this learning. Still, all thanks to my teachers, all of them. I am here thanks to you, good and not so good. I learned from you all!
That 'learning' part - that's the key. Learning is to have learned things, to understand them, perhaps even to have wisdom. But this is nothing to do with how many qualifications someone has, or how many words they know. Clever people, take note! (I doubt you can - being clever already, there is no need for you to learn any more).
If you say to me (and people do sometimes) "I'm just no good at this", then I can say "Maybe, but you know that. Look at the others - they have no idea they are no good at it!". It might look bad to you, but it's the start of learning.
Please keep your clever away from me. I will go with wisdom any day. Thank you!
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