Real Education In Walking On Water: 'This Is Water'

A “Real” Education

How do you define a “real” education? Some people might say a “real” education is about getting good grades or gaining as much knowledge as we can; some might say a “real” education is about teaching the life’s truths to become successful. It is true that people have discussed this topic for a long time. When I got into college, I kept asking myself about how to get a “real” education. I think that is a part of the reason I chose to study abroad in the US. I believe high-level educational system of America is excellent, more advanced than in my country. Honestly, in my view, a “real” education is what you learn in school. Simply, just like the knowledge I have gained, the friends
But, David Foster Wallace and Derrick Jensen have also given their knowledge of what the “real education” is. In “Walking on Water” by Derrick Jensen, he brings us into his school life. He uses his experience, like the three horrible lessons he learned when he was a student, to show that he is on the side against the traditional education system. He emphasizes that schools should not kill children’s creativity. Moreover, the real education is about self-discovery. Besides, the article “This Is Water” by David Foster Wallace is the commencement speech, lectured at Kenyon College. He states that we should focus more on finding our right way of thinking, like how to cognize others to not be arrogant. Also, Wallace argued avoiding default setting is important. After I had read Jensen and Wallace’s article, I learned that a “real” education is not about teaching lessons from the books or how to get good grades in the college. In “Walking on Water,” a “real” education is more about being creative, learning to discover yourself; and in “This Is Water,” it is about
He states that to find “who you are” is the only question and the only lesson in life (Jensen 41). Every person is unique, and we play our role in this society. So, discovering yourself is more important than any academic lesson. It seems that most of the schools are trying to shape students’ thoughts. They think students should learn how to gain benefits from the society. To be more specific, Derrick Jensen thinks that our current education system has destroyed our own habits and students can’t feel happy in school. We start to doubt ourselves and are afraid to follow our heart; for instance, we are more quiet in the classroom just because we are afraid to make mistakes if questioned. According to Jensen, “we could not live the ways we do unless we avoided the question, force others to avoid placing that question in front of us, and in fact attempted to destroy those who do.”(Jensen 42). To give my experience, the most sentences I heard in my school life is “you need to do well on your academic”, “you must graduate from a great university”, “if you don’t work hard, you will be a failure in the future”. I believe many students have faced similar situations. And finally, we can’t do anything we like, learn anything we want. We start to lose ourselves. To make the long story short, it is a hard part to be ourselves, but the thing is we can’t break the “hidden rules” in our school. Schools cut down