Why we need more learning and less education
Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are admired for creating huge fortunes though they dropped out of college. Their stories are used to show that a college education is not everything — you can build your life without it. I agree with that. There’s more to achieving success beyond being educated.
But Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are highly educated — just not in the sense we understand “education”. They are highly educated in the sense that they have continually learned how to master their niches to a degree many people haven’t.
Education and learning overlap. They seem like the same thing but they aren’t.
Education is the pursuit of accredited and graded learning. It is structured and follows a prescribed curriculum. It has clear exit goals at the end of a fixed period of study. It involves rote exercises and standard tests some of which can be passed without the student taking an interest in learning. Education’s worth is regulated by accreditors and its prestige is measured by school rankings. It creates and serves the working class — skilled personnel that need specific qualifications to be eligible for specific jobs.
Learning, on the other hand, is broad. It is ill-defined. It is individual sparks that occur within and without the classroom. It can be done individually without the guidance of a tutor. Learning plays a role in education but not all education plays a role in learning. Learning is bigger and broader than education.
Learning is filled with wonder. It’s the a-ha moments you get the first time you figure out things for yourself. It’s being curious and not stopping until your curiosity is met.
Learning is not limited to the classroom. I went to harvest potatoes on a farm recently. There were a number of employees helping with the harvesting. I quickly discovered they have more practical knowledge about farming than most people with degrees in agriculture or crop science. I certainly am no match for them. From years of working on their farms, they understand the intricacies of why and how plants grow. That knowledge has not been formalised or accredited but it is worth more than what others pay to get a degree.
There is indigenous knowledge and wisdom among villagers that is not celebrated because it is nothing like accredited education. There is no name for it and there are no grades to measure its breadth or depth. People have known how to study and predict weather patterns long before modern gadgets came into use. They have indigenous ways of storing food or treating illnesses that are bizarre to the educated mind but are worth studying. There is the self-taught man that repairs watches or electronic appliances. Or the man that created radio waves and started a radio station without ever having been in a classroom.
The purpose of learning is to help you understand yourself and understand your world so it can work to your advantage.
Learning should keep you curious. It should expose knowledge gaps and make you question. Learning should help you reason and express your ideas. It lives side by side with creativity. It is true empowerment and independence.
Learning is hard. That’s why education will always be more popular. It takes persistence and determination. It’s hard to continue wrestling with a problem for a prolonged period not knowing when the breakthrough will come. Not everyone will want to put themselves through that.
You cannot lead without being a learner. To lead, you must know or do things only you can do. You cannot excel in any field without teaching yourself about that field and understanding it better than your peers.
The educated have to keep learning.
