Today, I went for a nice long walk. It was a beautiful spring day, and I stopped a few times to sit and enjoy the afternoon.
I went by one of the high schools as I walked, and I thought a bit about education and whatnot. It's the time of year when students are graduating and getting ready to pursue post-secondary education.
I thought about my own education. It took me a very long time to finish my education; sixteen years to get a university degree. But I loved it, because I love learning. I have been asked by a few people if I plan on going back to school or something of that nature when September rolls around and my youngest goes to high school. I don't have any plans of that kind; and it isn't because I wouldn't love to; it's because it's more of a priority that our daughter get through university first. And besides, who says education is all about institutional learning?
Being in university afforded me the accountability I needed to motivate me to learn. Having to hand in assignments, write papers, and pass examinations in order to meet criteria for graduation pushed me to work hard. However, all that aside, I believe I have learned just as much over the last few years since I graduated. I continue to read and to feed my mind and make connections between what I learned in the classroom, what I see in "real" life, what I have read in subsequent books, and in the process of home schooling. Education is a life-long process; true education, that is. There is the kind of education we get specifically so we can be employed. That also involves learning new things, because jobs require us to make connections with our learning as well. However, someone can finish his post-secondary training and stop learning if he so chooses.
Education is a choice we make. We make the decision to see what's around us, to learn about our world, our God, and how everything relates together. Furthermore, education is not necessarily wisdom. Sometimes, a minimal amount of education with a huge dose of humility is far superior to a raft of degrees and knowledge devoid of humility. There are great numbers of educated fools out there. While I may not become any more "educated" in the typical sense of the word, I can grow in wisdom, and that's a pursuit I think we can all agree is a valuable one.
