What Does it Mean to Be 'Educated'?

By Lynn K. McMullin

This BLOG is a bit of a departure – a little more philosophical than newsworthy or practical; but I’d love to know what the members of our community are themselves thinking about the direction of education.

What does ‘being educated’ mean today?

Somewhere and sometime in the past few years, I’ve heard two separate anecdotes which illustrate an interesting paradox in defining what is means to be educated. The first was in a speech by Vartan Gregorian, the past-President of Brown University and current president of the Carnegie Corporation in New York. Gregorian cited a study in which Brown’s graduate students – supposedly among the best and the brightest young people in the country! – were asked, ‘What causes the seasons?’ About 85% of these graduate students (none of them science majors) explained and graphically illustrated on a piece of paper, with a great deal of confidence, an elliptical orbit, which when the earth was closer to the sun gave us summer and when it was farther away, gave us winter. Something approximating the diagram below:



Close to the sun -- it's summer!  Far away, it's winter!



But this, of course, is wrong! If it were true, the entire Earth would experience the same seasons at the same time. Yet, we know that summer in North America occurs at the same time as winter in Australia, and vice-versa. In fact, the Earth's orbit is nearly a circle, and the difference between its smallest distance from the Sun and its largest distance is proportionally very small. Furthermore, the Earth is furthest from the Sun in June when summer is beginning in the north! The seasons are caused by a combination of the tilt of the earth on its axis and its rotation.

Does this then make Brown University’s graduate students unprepared for the real world? They probably knew this concept at one point, but have forgotten it along their paths to learning something else in depth.  Should we label them 'uneducated' as they go off into the 21st century’s market place to become tech specialists, business executive, lawyers, manufacturers, social workers, Spanish teachers, and so on?  Or, should we accept that they will function exceptionally well with their particular skill set, enhanced with what is called 'just-in-time' knowledge, i.e. the ability to analyze accurate information as needed.

This second anecdote I heard at a curriculum workshop for differentiated instruction: eighth graders in a California school were given a portion of a standardized math test in which they were asked to generate their own answers and show their work. A word problem asked them, ‘How many buses will the army need to move 367 soldiers if each bus holds 48 soldiers?’ Students in the highest level math classes were more likely than students in lower level math classes to take their long division answers to the third decimal place and then round their answer to 7.65.  Yet, what’s .65 of a bus?  In this case, the students were well-schooled, but not practical. They were more concerned with being precise or accurate, than they were with being right.

Herein lies the paradox of the ‘educated’ student in the 21st century! To be educated, our students have to do much more than avail themselves of knowledge; they must apply what they know in a logical, meaningful way.  To be educated, they must both seek out information and develop critical minds capable of differentiating between pure academic knowledge and its real-life application. They need to be able to ask deep questions, observe meaningful patterns, make predictions.

In the past century, the ‘educated student’ knew a comparatively small body of work extremely well -- Shakespeare, ancient history, algebra and geometry, the Bible, the Fall of the Roman Empire, the function of cells, and so on. Today, however, with knowledge expanding exponentially, we know less and less about a whole lot more.  We cannot worry about our students being ‘academically’ educated in the same way they were in 1985. Our fear should be whether or not we are creating one-dimensional students who are unsure of what they know and how to use it.  In fact, recognized mathematician Grisha Perelman has said, "Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century."

Recently someone complained to me that the kids today don’t even know their state capitals. In truth, I wondered why that was such a problem.  In the argument that students can't locate states, countries, continents in the world -- an important global concept -- knowing the state's capitals contributes very little. Learning the state capitals requires rote memorization, a low-level skill that could potentially be reserved for life’s necessities, maybe spelling and multiplication facts (although even that is debatable in 2010).  But, should today’s students spend time memorizing the 50 state capitals?  Keep in mind, no thinking or problem-solving is involved! 

My grand-daughter, who’s a freshman in another school system, could find you a list of the state capitals on her cellphone in less than a minute.  In fact, one day when she, her mother, and I were driving through Vermont, my daughter wondered aloud if every state had a Springfield.  We started naming them, when from the back seat, my grand-daughter soon reported that about 35 states had Springfields… and several countries did… and then there was the Simpsons’ fictional city of Springfield… and three famous people with the last name of Springfield (‘Who’s Dusty?’ she asked!).  In about two minutes, she ‘knew’ more facts about Springfield than anyone cared to know.

That’s why as we work on Canton’s new social studies curriculum, we’re spending a great deal of time on the kinds of questions we want students to be able to answer.  In 5th grade, about the same age they might learn their state capitals, for example:  Not, “What is immigration?” but, “What factors cause groups of people move?”  Not, “What were the major inventions of the Industrial Revolution?” but, “How do we determine when change is 'progress'?”  Not, “What is the capital of Maine, Maryland, or Minnesota?” but, “How do our geography, climate, and resources affect the way we live and work?”

Your thoughts?