Education vs Schooling
Education vs. Schooling
By George A. Goens
The debate about public education misses a critical issue. Are students attending the public schools becoming well-educated or well-schooled? There's a difference; one that is seminal in determining almost every other discussion about public education.
The current emphasis on test scores to determine whether a child is getting a good education has narrowed the definition of education. The assumption is: if children do well on standardized tests, then they are well educated. But that assumption may be false. Here's why.
There's more than a critical difference between being well-educated or well-schooled.
Take a look at Enron, where individuals with degrees from highfalutin colleges and universities cooked the books, were deceitful in reporting their metrics, and bilked employees out of their retirement funds. All of them passed standardized tests and demonstrated acumen in reading, math, business and finance. The question is: were they well-educated?
Or take politics. There are many examples of administrations packed with the “best and brightest” individuals with law degrees and doctorates who have demonstrated their knowledge of facts, concepts, and theories. The Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations have had smart people make foolish decisions and, even, unethical and illegal ones. Members of Congress, the vast majority with college degrees, succumb to the allure of financial influence and pressure from lobbyists and political insiders. The question is: were they well-educated or well schooled?
Certainly in these examples, individuals are working in complex and high-pressure situations that call for more than literacy and simply mastery of facts or concepts. But all of us live in an increasingly complex world that requires more than "smarts" or
"shrewdness". What is necessary is wisdom, a term seldom heard today in discussions about education.
Goens – Education v. Schooling
1
Today’s schools are
By George A. Goens
The debate about public education misses a critical issue. Are students attending the public schools becoming well-educated or well-schooled? There's a difference; one that is seminal in determining almost every other discussion about public education.
The current emphasis on test scores to determine whether a child is getting a good education has narrowed the definition of education. The assumption is: if children do well on standardized tests, then they are well educated. But that assumption may be false. Here's why.
There's more than a critical difference between being well-educated or well-schooled.
Take a look at Enron, where individuals with degrees from highfalutin colleges and universities cooked the books, were deceitful in reporting their metrics, and bilked employees out of their retirement funds. All of them passed standardized tests and demonstrated acumen in reading, math, business and finance. The question is: were they well-educated?
Or take politics. There are many examples of administrations packed with the “best and brightest” individuals with law degrees and doctorates who have demonstrated their knowledge of facts, concepts, and theories. The Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations have had smart people make foolish decisions and, even, unethical and illegal ones. Members of Congress, the vast majority with college degrees, succumb to the allure of financial influence and pressure from lobbyists and political insiders. The question is: were they well-educated or well schooled?
Certainly in these examples, individuals are working in complex and high-pressure situations that call for more than literacy and simply mastery of facts or concepts. But all of us live in an increasingly complex world that requires more than "smarts" or
"shrewdness". What is necessary is wisdom, a term seldom heard today in discussions about education.
Goens – Education v. Schooling
1
Today’s schools are