Is your child getting a good education?
If asked that question, many would likely reply – somewhat indignantly even – “He goes to a good school. He gets good grades. Of course he’s well educated!”
But well-educated is not the same as well-schooled. And sadly, most of what we call education today is actually schooling, a fact former New York Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto did his best to draw attention to in the years before his death in 2018.
“School is about learning to wait your turn, however long it takes to come, if ever,” Gatto wrote in his book, Weapons of Mass Instruction. “And how to submit with a show of enthusiasm to the judgment of strangers, even if they are wrong; even if your enthusiasm is phony.”
So is your child well-schooled or well-educated? And which category do you fit in – the former or the latter? To find out, check out Gatto’s comments on the seven marks of an educated person:
1. They Appreciate Solitude
“Educated people are seldom at a loss what to do with time; being alone is often a blessing to the educated because they like their own company. Time doesn’t hang heavily on their hands.”
Do our children have a chance to be bored … or do we always seek to entertain them and fill every minute of their time? Furthermore, are we as adults people who can spend a quiet night at home somewhat regularly and be happy about it?
2. They Know How to Make Friends
“Educated people can form healthy attachments anywhere because they understand the dynamics of relationships.”
Are we helping our children develop their people smarts in addition to their book smarts? On the flip side, are we only comfortably maintaining our current friendships, or are we reaching out to others, engaging in conversation over the back fence, in the grocery store, or with new people at church?
3. They Make the Most of Their Time
“Educated people are aware of, accept, and understand the significance of their own mortality and each of its seasons. They learn from each moment, they gain insight all their ages, even to their last minutes on earth.”
To the well-educated person, every day is a school day, a time for learning whether reading a book or walking in the woods. Are we allowing our children to have real-life experiences from which they can glean insight … and are we letting ourselves learn lessons from our ups and downs in life, or just brushing them off as insignificant bothers?
4. They Know What They Believe
“Educated people possess a hard-won personal blueprint of value. They accept no prepackaged marching orders without passing them through the test of critical review. But they are also aware of a larger, human community and its values, are knowledgeable about values in different cultures.”
Are we instilling in our children not only the beliefs we hold, but the reasons why we hold them? If not, our children will find themselves tossed about on the sea of uncertainty when they get to adulthood. In the same way, are our beliefs strong enough to withstand challenges by those who believe differently – and do we have at least some understanding of what others believe and why we don’t agree with those beliefs?
5. They Are Innovative and Evidentiary
“Educated men and women enjoy power to create new things, new ideas and new experiences; the educated discover truth for themselves through the rules of evidence, not by memorizing opinions of others.”
Are our children only interested in imbibing video games or watching a show on the iPad, or are they learning to invent, create, and come up with new ideas from what they learn? Likewise, are we as adults stuck in a rut, or are we willing to try new things or entertain ideas we haven’t considered before?
6. They Are Not Overly Materialistic
“Educated people detect other people’s needs and in moving to meet those needs earn a living. But unlike the ignorant, the educated never become overly dependent on material wealth for happiness, recognizing that the most valuable goods – love, curiosity, reverence, and empathy – can be had without cost.”
Is a new dress, a toy, or a fancy car or boat the thing that brings the most pleasure in our lives or the lives of our children, or are the times we lend a helping hand and give to others where we find true joy? If we struggle to find joy in the latter, we may want to consider whether we have a truly educated mentality or not.
7. They Know How to Balance Pleasure With Responsibility
“Educated people actively seek variety and know how to master it sufficiently for pleasure and enlightenment. Yet they are aware, too, that without a home of their own and home responsibilities variety is hollow, experience superficial.”
Are we teaching our children to handle chores and responsibilities around home, or are we giving them an out because they have too much schoolwork or too many extra-curricular activities? A big part of education is learning how to work with our hands, but our children will never learn unless we step back and ask them to step up and take responsibility at home.
—
The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.
Image Credit: Picryl
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