Definition: an educated person

I wrote this final paper for a class I've been taking. The instructions were to use texts we've read so far to define yourself as a student and to form your own definition of an educated person. I don't know why I'm posting it here, but for some reason, I wanted to remember this. If you are horribly bored and alone, read on. Otherwise, I'll save it for whatever use it might have for me later in life.

However, if you arrive at the end of this story, please feel free to add to my definition of an educated person as the thought of what it really means, actually, continues to elude me still.

Prior to taking this class, I had not thought much about what it meant to be an educated person. I knew it was necessary to get the job you wanted, and perhaps for the sake of having the respect of those around you in your community, but aside from those practical purposes, I had not given it any deep thought.

                Throughout this course, I have been struck by the beauty of what education offers us. Although knowledge is out there in abundance, we must be willing to seek it out in places like history, architecture, art, religion, and science. The amount of information available to us is vast and nearly immeasurable. This class has offered us an overview, a summary perhaps of each, and since only a summary, has left me wanting more. It has also taught me that the well known quote is truer than ever before: “The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know."

                A passage that comes to mind that demonstrates this point is with the reading of Lying Awake, by Mark Salzman. This book had a surface level meaning to it that any person could grasp. However, it also had another level that raised deeper questions about faith and knowledge. It dared to shake the fundamental foundation of Christianity and did not necessarily leave the reader with a definitive answer either way. I believe that this was the author’s intention in the end: to make the reader choose faith or definitive knowledge. No matter which side we choose, in order to be truly educated, we must have at least considered the question.

                To me, the last few paragraphs of the book were the most poignant. Sister John is being asked to be the new novice’s mistress but she feels inadequate. She says, “I don’t feel I know anything about God’s will, Mother.”  Sister Teresa replies, “Yet you’re still here, trying to do His will anyway. That’s the kind of understanding I meant. The doing kind, not the knowing kind.” 

                I love this quote. It could be used to define the way I look at my education. The more I learn and the more knowledge I obtain, the more there is to question. Some of those questions are unanswered and are supported by faith.

                The Unnatural Nature of Science, by Lewis Wolpert was another text that inspired me to consider my education and what it means to be an educated person. Specifically, I was interested in how he defined science. When science is defined it also defines all that science is not. I had not considered a distinction between the two before, and it was an interesting distinction to make. Taking note of the differences between what is science and what is not is key to understanding what can be considered reliable information and what cannot, but only if you fully trust and believe in what science tells us it is. I was especially struck by the author’s statement on page six,

                “Scientific ideas are, with rare exceptions, counter-intuitive: they cannot be acquired by simple inspection of phenomena and are often outside everyday experience. Secondly, doing science requires a conscious awareness of the pitfalls of ‘natural’ thinking. For common sense is prone to error when applied to problems requiring rigorous and quantitative thinking; lay theories are highly unreliable.”

                In particular, this quote made me consider how much of what we believe is actually “lay theory”, and how many of the beliefs we hold are the same. There are some issues that cannot be placated by our best guesses. But they deserve much more as Wolpert suggests: problems that require rigorous and quantitative thinking.

                Lastly, I want to speak to the simple beauty that knowledge combined with inspiration delivers. This beauty is evidenced by the works of the hands of the architects, for example, that produce visual projections of their knowledge and inspiration for the world to see (and to appreciate if it attempts to do so).

                The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton was a lovely representation of what the combination of knowledge, education, and skill can accomplish. The author describes why architecture can move us. He says on page 22, “We may need to have made an indelible mark on our lives, to have married the wrong person, pursued an unfulfilling career into middle age or lost a loved one before architecture can begin to have any perceptible impact on us, for when we speak of being ‘moved’ by a building, we allude to a bitter-sweet feeling of contrast between the noble qualities written into a structure and the sadder wider reality within which we know them to exist. A lump rises in our throat at the sight of beauty from an implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints at is the exception.”

                These words hold more truth and beauty and do not need an explanation in my own words. However, I do want to say that I believe that knowledge produces an unavoidable external beauty for the world to take in. The offspring of the two, knowledge and inspiration, can be found in the skillful suture of a surgeon, or an unforgettable novel written by the hand of the inspired author, or in the harmony of a soulful piece composed by its author musician. Knowledge combined with inspiration produces, in various ways, visual, tangible, and beautiful projections. To me, this is the gift given to us by our Creator.

                Assessing myself as a learner, I would say that I am eager. I am eager to consider things I haven’t before. I am eager to be better than I was yesterday. I am challenged by my calling in life to be a nurse and a mother and a student, but I will continue to struggle to carve out the time needed to be successful at all of the above. Continuing education changes who I am.

                My time at Grandview has given me a broad view of what I need to be a useful part of society. Relating to my career as a nurse, I am just beginning the core of the BSN program and thus have not reached the material that will be most applicable to my career. However, the broad based knowledge that I have gained from this class and others will forever inspire me. They have given me the will to learn more. Grandview has a way of challenging me as a student, but removing the fear and distance that you feel at a larger university. Grandview has a way of making each student matter.

                The two classes that stand out to me from Grandview are this capstone course, as it gave a beautiful overview of the general education core.  The second was a caring class for nurses that I took a few years back. This was a class that reinforced in me the reasons I became a nurse and the reasons why I needed to be the best nurse I could be. It reminded me of the depth of my calling and the responsibility we have to our patients to be skillful and integral. It inspired me to do more and work harder to give more to the nurses of the future. It further inspired me to teach others. It is the reason why I am still working toward that goal today.

                My definition of an educated person is as follows: A person in awe of the unknown, who consciously seeks out truth and is transformed by that truth, evidenced by the works of their hands, their words, and their mind.