Education

[Lanikuhana]

My mother always taught me that education was the most important thing in life. I did not always agree with her, because we once had different definitions of the term. At first, I interpreted it to mean that one simply needed to go to college, and that it was her way of telling me that college is a good idea. Only recently did I begin to understand what she really meant. As I came to discover, education was about more than just going to college, it was learning about the world around you so you could open new doors, to speak metaphorically. My original interpretation of the term proved to be correct in a sense, but particularly narrow, as I learned that she was referring to much more than academics. When I started watching UEFA Champions League matches, there was much to learn to become an “informed” fan. I spent countless hours, mostly on the internet, reading about the structure of the competitions run by UEFA. It did not occur to me at the time, but I was educating myself, and I could enjoy the matches I watched even more than I already did.

When I had watched the 2004 European Championships, I was not nearly as informed about the operations of UEFA, and remember enjoying the competition much less than when I watched the 2008 edition of the tournament. Through the world of football in Europe, my view on the world became much more broad, as one thing led to another and I began studying the world around me, completely by my own free will. I still do not agree with my mother that education is the absolute most important thing in the world, but over the years I have come to appreciate the value of a good education, and will always remember her words.

[MoonChild69]

Education... or sports? dumb ass... Oh yeah, listen to yo momma!

[Mr. D]

Sport has much more to it than just physical exertion. It's a perfect example of many things including (but definitely not limited to) human behaviour & interaction, business relations & structure, science, art & culture.

If football has encouraged you to go out of your way to educate yourself about the many things that make up the sport, and these many things are being used in many other non-sporting applications, then go for gold!

Anything that encourages oneself to open your mind to find a better understanding of how the world works can't do any harm. Well.. except maybe drugs. But even that is debatable.

[Pinkslit]

edjamacashun is the best impotent ting.

[Jenn]

I tell my son that education is extremely important but his dreams are more important. Like most mothers, I want him to go to college and be very well educated and successful in whatever he does. But I will support him no matter what. Right now he wants to do tae kwon do(sp?) and I'm looking into it. Alot of the classes for it here are for 7 and up, and he's only five.

[Silly Cunt]

I enjoy educating myself in random shit.

I know that the 3rd fastest mammal in the world is the Thompson Gazelle, and that Usain Bolt was born without testicles, hence his (her) ability to run soo fast.

Sport however, is the glue that binds the planet, and once we eradicate religion (and the Lebonese), the world will be a utopia.

I learnt that in the Zoo magazine.

[Lanikuhana]

This was actually a writing assignment for my college English class.

Considering you guys actually responded to what I wrote instead of telling me it sucked, I guess that's a good sign.

I'm glad to be back in college, by the way.

[KommieKat]

To a certain degree, I feel that an acedemic education is, in a sense, being self-taught.

I mean, you do go home and read the books yourself, do the homework yourself and proctor your own exams, with the teacher looking over your shoulders of course.

Being self-taught is just as important. I taught myself Japanese. Working on Cantonese.
I taught myself to swim, ride motorcycles etc etc.

Bureaucracies are falling way behind the new wealth systems being developed by the IT revolution and that includes the implosion of our school systems, which are still based on an industrial wealth system as compared to todays knowledge based wealth system.

This new knowledge based system is creating a new way of life for Americans, since it was America that created it, with more and more people being self-taught.
Take computers for example. This is something you learned through yourself, with the aid of friends or on-line help like bullitin boards with a member base that was ready to help and answer your questions.

People who are leading this new revolution are known as Prosumers as in Productive Consumers. These are the DIY-ers who add additional rooms to their homes. They are also the people who create value for themselves and others in the non-money economies.

(more on this later, perhaps in another thread)

[Sideshow]

I started working for a media monitoring organisation around six months ago and I've probably learnt more from doing this job than my four university years. I read and analyse the Australian Financial Review and now have a much better understanding of the connectivity of the financial sector with the rest of society, whereas before I had zero idea. Also, doing this job you learn how discerning you have to be of media, not just in the sense of 'they'll say anything to sell a story' either, but that even a fairly consistent, agenda driven, media source will have multiple competing viewpoints.

While self-education provides most of the _useful_ things that we learn (and stuff for trivia nights at the pub) formal education also has a useful place. For instance, it allows a certain level of critical analysis and reflection that you can't necessarily 'learn' on your own. Its more a skill developed with consistent and repetitive third party evaluation. And i think that is really the aim of most university/college degrees.

Also, its hard to get a professional job if your only qualification is 'I've read a lot about it,' but that's more a problem with the system itself than the approach.