Obviously, everyone has had an educational experience, and in this article, I will discuss some thoughts on education at the current stage. I hope to explore the impact and significance of education on individuals through personal perspectives.
What is education?#
Regarding the question of "what is education?", I believe many of us have not deeply pondered on it.
At the same time, most people understand education in a narrow sense, specifically referring to school education. However, the education I am discussing here is a broad and more commonly existing concept, which can be divided into the following four types:
- Family education
- College education
- Social education
- Self-education
At different stages of life and in different situations, we receive different types of education and become the recipients of different types of education. Now let us reflect on what kind of education we have received.
Family education#
There is no doubt that almost everyone's first education is family education. During this stage, we develop our perception of the outside world and construct our emotional and emotional systems. Family education has a profound influence on a person. If we use a mobile phone as an analogy, we can say that family education is equivalent to the operating system of a phone. Family education shapes a person for a lifetime, and many people are deeply influenced by their initial family education throughout their lives.
College education#
The education commonly recognized by society is college education, where specialized personnel teach relevant knowledge or skills in specialized institutions, and the recipients of education acquire knowledge or skills they did not possess before through learning.
College education is the most common form of education in today's society and is widely accepted by the entire society. A key point is that through the standardized educational process of colleges, it cultivates the productivity needed for social construction and development (the educated individuals are providers of productivity).
At the same time, the effectiveness of education and the level of the educated individuals cannot be accurately measured or require significant costs to measure. However, with standardized college education, the educational achievements of the educated individuals can be relatively measured through indicators such as degrees, greatly reducing the costs society incurs in assessing individual levels. For example, after I graduate from an apprenticeship or college and enter society, it is difficult for an employer to measure my level of ability in the short term. However, with an authoritative academic degree, the employer can save a lot of costs in verifying my abilities. This is a beneficial measure for the development of the entire society.
Another advantage of college education is that it allows professionals to do professional work. Teachers only need to be responsible for education, and educational methodologies and systems can be accumulated and systematized. This enables individuals to achieve better results after receiving education and provides more support for social development.
Social education#
People are part of society, and the process of social life is the process of receiving social education. It may be the subtle influence during social interactions, or it may be the demands or criticisms of others that make us learn something. Social education emphasizes application, prompting the educated individuals to apply their educational achievements in practical ways, thereby bringing about social development and progress. In this process, individuals also gain more survival resources and living space.
Self-education#
After learning so much knowledge and skills from the outside world, the ultimate goal is to live a good life. As individuals, self-education is necessary. Through iteration of our actions and thoughts, we can progress. Through self-study, we further develop our abilities in certain aspects.
Compared to other concentrated forms of education, I believe self-education allows us to face ourselves, understand ourselves, and take control of ourselves.
Compared to the general abilities acquired through college education, personal self-education becomes more important as the overall level of education in society increases. In the past, many people may not have engaged in deep learning and thinking after graduating from college. However, if we want to achieve better development in the future society, we have to engage in better self-education. We need to continuously learn more valuable things based on our industry and development needs. Self-education may not provide relevant qualifications, but it allows our personal value to continue to grow. I believe that everyone should engage in continuous, in-depth, and high-quality self-education.
What is the significance of education?#
Education is crucial for both society and individuals. Here, we will only focus on the significance of education for individuals.
Educating people to become human#
Becoming a true individual is difficult for all of us, but becoming a true individual is the foundation of all topics.
I believe that for individuals, regardless of the type of education they receive, the significance is always the same. That is, through education, each individual becomes a "true person" who can understand the goodness of human nature and experience the beauty of life. They become a person with humanity, capable of experiencing beauty, love, and living authentically.
Educating people on how to live#
An important purpose of education is to make people become part of society, participate in social work, and create social benefits. In the process of being educated, we learn the knowledge and skills needed to participate in social production and life.
With these skills and knowledge, we have the opportunity to enter various organizations and institutions, where we play a role. We participate in social production and life, create benefits for others, and at the same time, obtain rewards to satisfy our own needs for life and development.
What is the use of education?#
Education is a vast system, and it is a social-level system. I do not intend to and do not have the ability to provide answers from a professional perspective. I believe that the main function of education is survival, that is, solving present and future "existence" problems through education.
Survival#
From birth, we are being educated, learning how to eat, drink, live, and seek help from adults. All behaviors have one purpose, which is to survive. Later on, when we receive college education or social education, it is to acquire skills and knowledge that allow us to obtain resources for survival in the real world.
Just like education, many things in our lives are for survival. Some behaviors or attributes are even difficult for us to notice, such as our various fears, which are behaviors to avoid danger in order to survive. Therefore, when we think about many issues, we can also dig deeper and think about how these things are manifested in the history of human evolution and at the genetic level. Thinking from this level may bring us enlightenment on many things.
After solving the problem of survival, the next thing we think about is how to live a better life, which is another function of education at this level. Through continuous education and learning, we rely on the skills and knowledge we have mastered to obtain more and better resources for survival, thereby achieving better goals in life. This is very important for individuals and largely because we want to have a better life, we will continue to learn. The upgrading of individual abilities will inevitably lead to the overall improvement of society.
Development#
After obtaining the initial survival ability, the purpose of receiving education is for development, mainly manifested in the accumulation of material wealth and the upgrading of knowledge.
Through education, we have the opportunity to participate in social work and acquire the ability to access social resources. In the process of continuous development, we gradually form our own channels for accumulating resources. By participating in social production and life, we further achieve material accumulation. This material accumulation is multifaceted, including tangible materials such as money and real estate, as well as intangible materials such as power and reputation.
On the other hand, through continuous education and self-education, we open the door to understanding the world, gradually grasp the tools, methods, and concepts accumulated by humanity, and based on this, we are able to perceive everything in the world and gradually form our own thinking and understanding of everything. This forms an individual's life cognition.
We started by discussing what education is, then discussed the classification of education, followed by the significance of education, understanding the impact of education on us, and finally discussed the use of education, aiming to explore the present-day role of education in individuals.
In the end, what I want to express is: the most important aspect of education is teaching individuals how to live. On one hand, through education, we acquire the skills and knowledge needed to participate in social production and life, allowing us to obtain social resources for survival and life. On the other hand, through education, each of us should become a person, a person with the goodness of humanity, capable of experiencing the beauty of life and living authentically. First, become a "true person," and then become a father, mother, employee, leader, teacher, and so on.
Our lives are actually very small, one in several billion, but as living individuals, we are so alive. In order not to let this vibrant life go to waste, we should learn how to live better and become better people, right? Let's encourage each other!
Love life and strive forward.
Reading List
Books:
《The Ultimate User Experience》
《Mr. Toad Visits a Psychologist》
《The Blockchain Revolution》
《Self-Cultivation for Internet Product Managers》
《Guardians of the Children》
《Expansion or Closure: Re-examining Offline Opportunities》
《Elegant Gentlemen 1-6》
《High-Performance Coaching》
《Crime Without Evidence》
《Goal: Elite Thinking Methodology Driven by Vision》
《Resource Competition》
《Introduction to NLP》
《Starting the Fifth Time》
《Deliberate Practice》
《Game Theory and Life》
Courses: "Three Lessons - Product Manager P1"
Movies:
《Ming of the Swamp - Roaming Blue Bay》
《Bergman: That Year, That Life》
Liang Wendao's conversation with Chen Danqing on "The Revolution of Bauhaus"
《Poor-mouth Zhang Damin's Life》
《Lawrence of Arabia》
《The Art of Racing in the Rain》