30 Day Challenge - Day 9 - How Important You Think Education Is

Day 9: How Important Education Is

I'm very tempted to say "very" and leave it at that, but I have too many friends who are teachers to do that.

I will do my best to avoid the topic of the American education system (ex: teaching to tests rather than students). 

Let me quote Mark Twain, "Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge" and more famously, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

First, I believe that learning is a skill that must be taught.  This is a the most important education in a person's life...learning how to learn.  There are many, many people who don't know how to learn and instead only believe what their own brain comes up with, a very big mistake.  To learn is taught inside the classroom and in the home.  Often, it is two types of learning taught, and often only one is truly internalized.

Second, once you have been taught how to learn, you can't stop learning.  Everywhere you look is something you didn't know before, a new fact or lesson to grow from.  

Third, there is so much more to learn outside of books, and within yourself.  "Know thyself" said the Greeks, and I agree.  Know who you are first, and continue to grow in that knowledge as often as possible.  Before you seek to know everything about everyone else (for you nosey people) know yourself first.  Before you move forward with a big decision and seek out everyone else's advice, ask yourself what you would do.  No, I'm not saying "follow your heart" because the heart rarely learns a lesson, but to understand that you are your greatest advocate.

So basically, education, or the ability to learn, is incredibly important.  Don't take it for granted.