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, which refers to school education. However, the education I am discussing here is a broad and more commonly existing concept, which can be mainly divided into the following four types:
- Family education
- College education
- Social education
- Self-education
In different stages of life and different situations, we receive different types of education and become recipients of different types of education. Now let us reflect on what kind of education we have received.
Family education#
Undoubtedly, 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, which is provided by specialized personnel in specialized institutions to teach relevant knowledge or skills. The recipients of education acquire knowledge or skills that 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 whole society. A key point is that standardized education processes in colleges cultivate the productivity (the educated individuals as providers of productivity) needed for social construction and development.
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 academic qualifications, 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 employers to measure my level of ability in the short term. However, with an authoritative academic qualification, employers can save a lot of costs in verifying my abilities. This is a beneficial measure for the development of society as a whole.
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 systematically inherited. 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 in interpersonal communication, or it may be the demands or criticisms of others that make you learn something. Social education emphasizes application, prompting the educated individuals to apply the 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#
We learn so much knowledge and skills from the outside world, and the ultimate goal is to live our own lives. As individuals, self-education is necessary. Through iteration of our own actions and thoughts, we make progress. Through self-study, we further develop our abilities in certain areas.
Compared to other concentrated forms of education, I believe that self-education allows us to face ourselves, understand ourselves, and take control of ourselves.
Compared to the general abilities acquired through college education, individual 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 have 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 academic qualifications, but it will continuously increase our own value. 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 focus on the significance of education for individuals.
Educating individuals to become human beings#
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. It is to make each individual a "true person" through educational means. We are able to understand the goodness of human nature and experience the beauty of life, becoming a person with humanity, capable of experiencing beauty, love, and living authentically.
Educating individuals on how to live#
An important purpose of receiving education is to make individuals 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 meet 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 the moment we are born, we are being educated. We learn to eat, drink, live, and seek help from adults. All our actions 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 perceive, such as various fears, which are behaviors to avoid danger for the sake of survival. Therefore, when we think about many issues, we can also dig deeper and think about what the expression of this matter is in the history of human evolution, at the genetic level. Thinking about many things from this level may bring us enlightenment.
After solving the problem of survival, the next thing we think about is how to live a better life. This 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 life goals. This is very important for individuals and largely because we want to have a better life, we will continue to learn, and 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 obtain social resources. In the continuous process of development, we gradually form our own channels for accumulating resources. By continuously 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 master various tools, methods, and concepts accumulated by humanity. Based on this, we are able to perceive everything in the world and gradually form our own thinking and understanding of everything, thus forming an individual's life cognition.
We started the discussion on education by exploring what education is, then discussed 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 thing about education is teaching individuals how to live. On the one hand, through education, we acquire the skills and knowledge needed to participate in social production and life, allowing us to obtain social resources and survive. On the other hand, through education, each of us should become a person, a person with goodness, capable of experiencing the beauty of life, and living a genuine life. 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 forge ahead.
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 Coach》
《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 Harlem: Twenty One Storeys in the Air》
《Bergman: A Year in a Life》
Liang Wendao in conversation with Chen Danqing "The Revolution of Bauhaus"
《Poor Mouth Zhang Damin's Life》
《Lawrence of Arabia》