Thinking about the question: “What should it mean to be educated?”, we can receive as many answers as people who will think about it (Spayde, 2004). The point is that life by itself is a social environment that is built of learning, knowledge transfer and experiences. Theory that we can gain in college is like a musical instrument – an opportunity that not everyone can value and use. You can gain the instrument as a present and leave it behind or, you can pursue the learning curve and dominate it. Some will become technically skilled; others will be called virtuosi – this depends on the combination of internal and external factors that not always are controlled by us. I would argue that education has the same profile. The way we treat and reflect on education is personal and will always remain a subject of hottest debates. My life brought me illuminating experiences and presented two wonderful kids. Raising them was a continuous learning process for all of us, and this can never be replaced by college curriculum or education in its traditional understanding (Crawford and Rossiter, 2006). Today, I am 47 years old, and I am back to college. Why? Because I believe that a college education is essential for technical knowledge that makes good professional, while life education is the only way to learn leadership – leading self and leading others. The point that I am trying to make is that the purpose of college education is to provide an individual with basic tools and technical knowledge essential for building sustainable and healthy social environment.
I argue that while life can provide us with knowledge and wisdom that, surely, can be enough to survive and be happy. College education is a way to bring forward our past and demonstrate the depth of human development and common knowledge. Education without structure, as well as structure without followers will not have meaning. Each of us has individual principles, values, personal experiences, perceptions and opinions. These personality traits are the result of our learning from social surrounding as well as from an educational curriculum. Eliminating one of these two elements will result in partial loss of value. In her essay What Does a Woman Need to Know, Rich (1979) argues that a woman will not be able to understand her own self, unless she deeply understands the roots of feminism and role of women in history. This knowledge is the responsibility that a college education takes over from life experience (Ruszkiewicz and Lunsford, 2008).
I decided to pursue my college education at this stage, because I want to transform my professional life and pursue a career of “circulating nurse”. I am confident that this objective will help me to achieve my goals and reach satisfaction not only in my personal life, but also with my professional contribution to the society. Would I be so sure about what I want to achieve if I asked myself this question twenty years ago? My answer is – no. And here I would like to share the standpoint on education, presented by John Spayde (2004). The author put in doubt the most sacred element of human development – education. He suggests that the contemporary view on education should evolve along with the changing social environment and finally accept the value of life and college learning as the core constructs of our education. I could not agree more with this statement, as I believe that life gave me experience and brought me to the point where I can with confidence outline my priorities. College, on the other hand, is a tool that will help me to gain practical and technical knowledge, required by society to pursue the career of certified nurse working in operating room.
Works Cited
Spayde, John. Learning in the Key of Life. The Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. 4th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2004: 64-69. Print.
Marisa Crawford and Graham Rossiter. Reasons for Living: Education and Young People's Search for Meaning. Comberwell: Acer Press, 2006. Print.
John Ruszkiewicz and Andrea Lunsford. The Presense of Others. The Voices and Images That Call for Response. Boston/New York: Bedford/ StMartin´s, 2008. Print.
