What Does It Mean To Be Educated Essay Example

What does it mean to be educated? I constantly hear the word being used by many people around me and never thought to ask myself what does it mean to be educated? We probably all heard “Go to college and get an education” at least once in our lives and we are more than likely just assuming the meaning that college would educate you. But after reading around and collecting different ideas from different authors I define being educated based on your mindset, knowledge and skills . Being able to explain clearly and effectively, argue your points, make your claims with an extreme interest in your education, and to always be willing to learn more. Being educated isn’t about the degrees or awards you have, it's about the knowledge and the freedom of your mind and asking questions that many don’t.being educated is found within a person and is different for everyone.    

To many, being educated means going to school and coming out with a degree there are many words for people like this but I don’t think educated is one. To clarify, I find someone who goes and completes college smart and hardworking. We can't say everyone that comes out of college is educated because many people who finish school go on to live their life working in whatever profession and more than likely their education will end there because in reality we see college as a strong advantage to get jobs in the workforce.  From  “8 reasons why you should go to college” money was at the top of that list stating “College graduates have more earning potential on average than people who only have a high school diploma. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that in 2018, people with a college degree made around $1,198 a week. Someone with a high school diploma earned just $730. That could mean non-college grads are missing out on $1 million in earnings, over a lifetime.” 

Well I do agree when most people think of someone that is educated the first thing that pops to many minds is school. It shouldn't be the main factor of determining if someone is educated or not because everyone has different reasons for going . Coming from “Defining the Educated Person” by Jill Anderson they states” To be considered educated, said the panelists, students should leave school with a deep understanding of themselves and how they fit into the world, and have learned what some call “soft skills” – complex problem-solving, creativity, entrepreneurship, the ability to manage themselves, and the ability to be lifelong learners. As Professor Fernando Reimers, who moderated the panel, summarized, there is a disconnect between how education gets delivered in the classroom and the common desire for students to become good, well-rounded people.”

Well I do agree  an educated person should have soft skills, problem solving, creativity ,entrepreneurship ,abilities to manage themselves  and become lifelong learners but I don’t see why or how you need school to develop these traits because many if not all the skills listed can be learned outside of a classroom. I also agree with the writer's point of an educated person being a student but not in a traditional sense of school being a student means “someone who is learning at a school, or in any teaching environment.”

Being a student isn’t limited to just being in school, instead it’s your learning environment and mindset. Being educated is always being a student in a way, always wanting to learn more and always pursuing more for their own reasons and to better themselves by being well divested in many different subjects.

I do agree nonetheless school is important and is able to give  you a set unique of opportunities that many people without the proper certifications can’t get into but as I mentioned before many of the skills and traits an educated person has can be learned outside of school with a lot of everyday tasks and life experience. Being educated is about the constant pursuit of new knowledge and straying out of the normal paths of many if we go day by day doing the exact same things as we did the day before we would end up nowhere. Being an independent thinker is part of being educated, those who are able to make their own thoughts and ideas without including the thoughts of others to influence their own ideas. From  “An independent thinking mind” it states” Independent thinking means you do not follow others opinion blindly, but analyze and synthesize all sources of input and information to form your own opinion. It doesn't mean that you "reinvent the wheel" every time when you make a decision. But if you uncritically accept whatever values, knowledge or ideas you've been taught, many of them perhaps are out of date or have a bias, you are not a great thinker”. Educated people don’t have bias with their opinions but instead they use their own facts and reasoning that they find to choose what they agree or disagree on. Being an independent thinker allows freer thoughts and in turn allows additional discoveries due to the variety of thought. To be clear just having different thoughts than most others  doesn’t make you an independent thinker but you need to come up with your reasonings behind your thinking.

Being educated also means you know how to treat other people and you’re considerate of their feelings. Even though this may not seem to have anything to do with being educated since you can think and act on your own it doesn’t always mean you will always have the answers. Being able to work with people is a must and being considerate of others feelings is important even if you’re not working with the person. It's important to treat them with respect and kindness since those who know better do better. 

One of if the important aspects of being an educated person is learning how to take  failure and criticism. Everyone in their lives has experienced failure in some shape or form. This doesn’t really help you unless you ask yourself why you failed. This may seem obvious to a majority of people but some people are stubborn and think they’re always right and this doesn’t make anyone educated in fact it makes them “stupid” there is always something to learn and not matter how big or small the constructive criticism is it should always be taken into account and worked on as to an educated person their education never stops.