Education is a virtue

There is no undertaking that is more important and farseeing than education. The troubled people of our world are not going to wake up one day and decide to stop hurting one another and help make the world a better place for all.

However, such a civilization is in our future, and the time it takes to get there depends most on how much we emphasize education.

The “issue” of education is often thrown in with others such as health care, climate crisis and economic instability. The proposed governmental solutions that reach my ears include better funding of schools, higher compensation for teachers and more effective testing.

These are reasonable and more or less standard ideas about how to improve the troubling statistics that we often hear of associated with struggling educational systems.

This approach, however, is far too simplified to reveal the true scope and power of education. Such a realization will only be possible by means of a more active mind-set in essentially everyone. By this, I do not mean that you all must become involved in fundraisers for underprivileged schools. What I am suggesting is much easier: Learn to appreciate the joy and satisfaction available in your own education.

Much of the potential pleasure in education is lost in our quest to earn a degree and secure a good career. There is nothing dishonorable about such a goal. However, the opportunity to earn any degree is a chance to learn how a particular part of our world works and, in doing so, satisfy our natural curiosity. If we can sincerely approach our education with the same fascination as we did when we were young kids, unapologetically asking “why?” and “how?” we will gain something far greater than good grades.

 If we are lucky, we might even ask one of these questions in a situation in which there is either not yet an answer, or there is one, but we are unwilling to accept it as given.

And if we are motivated, we can then work to be the first to find a good answer. In doing so, we will have engaged in one of the greatest aspects of human nature: satisfying curiosity by discovery. This is a common goal of good teachers and second-nature for great ones.

You may rightfully be asking, “How will becoming a nerd help the world?” In order to fully understand education’s potential to combat global problems, you must first appreciate the deep satisfaction education offers. At this point, solving the problems of our schools will not seem like some herculean task. Instead, improvement will become an opportunity to share your joy in knowledge and discovery.

Many of our world’s greatest changes have resulted from small shifts accumulating in the minds of many. Unlike foreign relations in the Middle East, the education “issue” is not so much in the hands of our leaders as in the mind of the individual.


E-mail: tylatkin@indiana.edu