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What It Means to be Educated

In Richard MitchellÆs, Albert Jay NockÆs and Craig VetterÆs essays we are provided with various views of what it means to be educated, both explicitly and implicitly. Mitchell (1) maintains being educated encompasses being a ôthoughtful inquirerö as opposed to merely ôa receiver of communication.ö Nock (2) argues that ôeducation is too little regarded as an end in itself,ö and Vetter (1) maintains that one cannot be educated to write well except for painstakingly facing the ôenemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper.ö This analysis will compare and contrast these authorsÆ views on what it means to be educated.

In Richard MitchellÆs ôHunger in America,ö the author maintains that critical thinking is imperative to be a truly educated individual. Instead of being merely a ôreceiverö of information, Mitchell (2) insists one must be an ôunderstanderö who is able to think for himself or herself rather than relying on feeling. Explicitly, he defines being education as knowing ôthe whole thing, the whole art and power of language and thoughtö (Mitchell 3). This encompasses the ability to be attentive, to be reflective, to be judicious, as well as the capacity to reason in a way that nourishes the whole mind. When one is truly educated, one is the ômaster of the will, not its slave,ö; one is the ôjudge of desire, not its procurer,ö; one is the ôcensor of sentiment, not its tool,ö; and one is the ôinquisitor of belief, not its flackö (Mitchell 4). Our beliefs and feelings, which are uneducated phenomena, are undermined only when we arrive at such ôwholenessö of education.

Albert Jay Nock argues that education in contemporary society has lost its true focus. Instead of focusing on ôeducationàas an end in itself,ö our schools focus on ôvocationö and ôtrainingö that serve to undermine real education and learning (Nock 2). Yet Nock (3) implies that when one is truly educated

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What It Means to be Educated. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:05, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710963.html