Well Educated

Sad to say, most of my education and perhaps yours, was "well", that of being sent down into one and blindly listening to and "learning" facts to memorize and regurgitate so as to receive an "A" or a percentage of success in being able to paraphrase them at examinations and receive a piece of paper after years of it, at a rite of robes and roses saying that you have been successful at repeating what you were "taught". Seldom during class is one welcomed to question, to dare to propose something different than what the teacher expounds. Few teachers that I encountered in my Education days did other than stand at the front of a room and blab on as they had every year of their professorial life and expect that we students not question them and furthermore to be keenly interested.  On rare occasions, we were blessed with teachers who asked for your ideas on the subject. Your naivities were welcomed and examined sincerely and patiently.  While most students hadn't the background to do this well, the acceptance of their questioning  inspired them. This is what makes students want to reach beyond their formal education and perhaps invent possibilites that could be the savings of mankind. The present mode in schools, demanded mostly by the business world desires not creativity but obedience to form. It has school boards working out ways to "report" to parents a number for their child. Your kid is  a seventy percenter and will live a seventy percent life, the "A" kid being alpha.  How many Valedictorians  left school or university and became failures? Their popularity with fellow students and teachers seldom went beyond the walls of the school. Likewise marks do not necessarily indicate success. A human being is not about percents and diplomas, it is about who he is and what he can do well. (He being "he", the human being, of course.) Your essential plumber or electrician or nurse, your hotel cleaner or restaurant cook, your store clerk are educated - not usually at a university but mostly by love of what they do. To test this ask: does your doctor really care about you or even know you? Does your CA know how hard it was for you to earn what you pay a walloping tax on? Does your lawyer/parliamentarian think about you as much as you think about his or her party? Does the rich hockey or football player get as excited for you as you do for it? Or does the trillionaire singer or actor you spend money on, even know who you are or give a hoot? The humble "well educated" one who cares for you personally, does mind the future - that of mankind and you as part of it, while at their jobs. That is what I call "well" educated.