The educated person to me is someone who knows a lot and has studied any subject. This subject could be hair, construction, or biology. You do not need to go to college to be an educated person because many people who never go to college are more knowledgeable about a subject than most college students. This society we live in has made it seem like the more educated you are, the more your life matters. There is also a stigma that if you aren’t educated, you are not as intelligent as the people who are educated. However, being smart and being educated are not the same thing at all. In fact, an educated person is really a relative belief that differs between people depending on their experiences.
This document shows how relative the belief of and “educated person” is, and how much that belief differs between people. The department of art sees an educated person as someone who has knowledge over a wide range of subject, but the drama/dance department views an educated person as someone who has knowledge of the world and can think for them self. The music department takes the view of an educated person being able to express themselves and answer questions after a period of research possibly. There are more departments, and I attached the link so that you can read more to dive deep into the interesting views of what an educated person is depending on different departments of education. Some of the views are the same, but for the most part, every view is different and shows how relative the belief of an “educated person” is.
So, what is the purpose of school then? If an educated person is a relative concept, and everyone views it different, why do we hold education to such a high standard? To start to figure out this answer, I dove into the history of education and why we started it in the first place. This video is a great and short history of how schools came to be.
During the enlightenment, many people began to believe that we needed a universal education system to flush out superstitions and teach scientific rationale. Literacy was meant to provide that. Then, people such as Thomas Jefferson started to believe that we needed school to tech people to be good citizens because we cannot simply be born good, we must be taught. Thomas Jefferson also thought that schools could be a way to see who the extremely intelligent and talented people were. A little while later, schools were used to create social stability to deal with class issues that were emerging from the industrial revolution. Many “Captains of Industry” thought there could be some vocational value in schools. Boring things learned in school were a way to show the future employer that you could handle rote work on the assembly line. The most discussed rationale for school is that schools were created for economic efficiency to help promote economic growth by teaching students skills that will promote innovation. Hoping that they will return to a community and put in more than the school puts into the school (tax money).
All of these rationales for schools are still discussed today, however, I think I agree with the last one mentioned the most. Students are taught so they can find jobs in the future and make the economy better. Without education, we would not know what skills to be learned and we would not have certain skills such as time management and public speaking. Even though not everything in school is needed, there are aspects of it that will help you become a better member of society. Even though intelligent is not the same as educated, normally the more educated you are, the more you are able to use your intelligence to better society.
This classroom shows what school in this society is like, and every aspect needs to be focused on the students. As teachers, we need to prepare the students for their future in a digital world that is constantly changing. We need to have technology that advances their knowledge of content and of technology itself.
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