Education

Posted for Dina Assad
Section 6

When you look up the definition of education you will receive two definitions: the first is

“the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university”

and the second definition is “an enlightening experience”. While the first definition is mostly

true, but there is a difference between being educated or just literate. Literacy is knowing how to

read and write, but being educated is to be able to reason. Education is more than just learning

from books, education is the teaching of how to live independently and become adults. Education

does not have to occur in schools and big Universities, but can occur anywhere and at any time.

Socrates is one of the philosophers who loved being educated and tried to strive for more

knowledge. Education to Socrates was more important than money and anything else. Being able

to think and reason everything around him was as important as breathing. Athens was like a

classroom for Socrates. Socrates started out with going around his town and asking people

questions and tried to have deep discussions with them; some accepted his conversations and

some did not accept his teaching or thinking. He then started to teach young boys, one of them

was Plato, and continued this way for so long. Socrates cared more about knowledge than money

and that is why Plato stated that Socrates did not charge his students. Socrates did not attend big

Universities in order to learn, in fact, he was a sculptor just like his father until he had a hunger

for knowledge. He decided to seek true knowledge based on his own intuitions as a guide in his

search. One famous quote from Socrates is “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know

nothing.” Socrates never claimed that he knew everything, he believed that knowledge had no

limits and no one was capable of knowing everything in order to call themselves well-informed.

For Socrates, education does not come from books, but from how we try to think about life and

everything surrounding us and start looking for answers.

As I have stated before and what Socrates seems to be agreeing with is that education

does not only have to come from a book, but should come from how we think for ourselves

about things that goes around us. One quote that I find very interesting is “To find yourself, think

for yourself.” In order to know who we truly are, we have to think for ourselves. Another quote

that I agree with is “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds

discuss people.” A person who really wants to be knowledgeable starts to think about everything

around him and have discussions with people around him, those who only talk about certain life

events does not go anywhere and does not gain any knowledge, and last those who look at others

does not gain any knowledge at all and continues to live like an ignorant for the rest of his life.

Education