Persuading my students that education is a lifetime process is a lot like nailing snow to the wall. It is generally unavailing and at best temporary.

The belief that a diploma indicates an education is pernicious. It is self defeating. A diploma is like a license to drive. Its possession is evidence that one knows how to learn. But if it is considered an end in itself, it is of little use. It is like getting a driver’s license, proudly carrying it with you and proudly showing it to everyone and then never driving a car.

We are confused between education as a finished product delivered at the end of the assembly line and education as a matter of capability. One is static becoming obsolete. The other is dynamic continually changing form and creating new dynamics and possibilities in endless chains.

As a society, treating education as a finite process limits and cheapens political discourse. It makes learning into a jobs game like going around the monopoly board.

To build a society, a civilized place for people to develop, education never ends. It continually creates and inspires.

A diploma without further learning is a static choice. It is easy. The other, lifetime learning, is dynamic and difficult.

We can do what is difficult. We have a responsibility to our posterity to do the difficult, to leave our descendants a lasting example and to call from us, our best efforts.

James Pilant

I don’t think I’ll be asked to defend myself if I say that most ‘learners’ at secondary or tertiary level treat their education as a means to an end. I’d imagine the student who is studying for the sheer love of learning is a far rarer animal than the student who is studying because it is the only way to attain whatever goal he or she has set. Kids spend their lives at school waiting to be out of school, and students tend to be at university wait … Read More

via LongWind