Problem Solving: What It Means to Be Well-Educated?

Defining the question of “What it means to be well-educated?” is sure to raise a heated debate. It may be a common notion to some to think being well-educated means a college degree. However, what do the geniuses: Johannes Gutenberg, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? None of them completed college. This conundrum makes it difficult to have a true definition what it means to be well educated. However, each of these men was/are visionaries with the experience and passion to challenge preconceived notions of technology and create platforms of how to spread information in order to make the world a more connect and well-educated place. Technology has made it possible for everyone to solve problems quickly and effectively without prior schooling. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are people with college degrees that work a dead end job or never try to move up the corporate structure. Creating a well-educated educated society is important because well-educated societies tend to be more tolerant and have less social problems. Although some may argue that the educational system’s purpose is to produce well-educated citizens, the truth is that this idea is flawed and unrealistic because being well-educated is actually the ability to problem solve and the passion to put those skills into action to benefit society which is not necessarily exclusive to college.

It is fallacious to think that you need to go to college to be well educated because motivation lets you learn anywhere. Passion and problem solving skills might supersede the classroom experience. While discussing this topic, I cannot help but think of the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The reasoning behind this idea is that when someone/something gets old, his or her drive to learn a new skill has diminished. However, the television show Mythbusters proved that you could in fact teach old dogs’ new tricks (Discovery 1). The key was giving the dog motivation to learn the new tricks through dog treats. Humans have the ability and motivation to learn new things out of pure passion. My ninety six year old grandfather became fascinated with the computer and internet despite having no knowledge of how to operate this technology. His passion lead him to completing a computer class and discovering a wealth of new ideas about the world. All these things have allowed him to become more up to date and well educated on current events. Shupe, the author of the article What Does It Mean to Be Well-Educated?, asserts that passion is a major part of being well-educated. She stated, one of the essential qualities of being well educated is “The ability to make things, to satisfy a need or just for fun (Shupe 2).” If a highly intelligent person is not motivated to better the world or keep up with necessary trends then he/she will accomplish nothing. Most commonly referred to it as “wasted potential.” One example of this is Electronic Medical Records.