Activity 1.4: What does it mean to be “educated”?

While every person learns the information necessary for survival in his/her environment, the term “educated” is reserved for a special kind of knowledge that is considered valuable by society.  Someone is “educated” when he/she can appropriately use the information considered common to people who hold power in that society.  I explain to my writing students that “standard” English isn’t “correct” English, but it’s the language accepted by people with economic and political power, of high value in our society, so they should learn to use it if they want to have social power.  That is what it means to be “educated.”

2 thoughts on “Activity 1.4: What does it mean to be “educated”?”

  1. Including power in the definition is interesting indeed. Good to think about this. In this sense, your definition is contextually situated. Can there be a context-free definition of “educated”?

    1. Good question, Dr. Usher. I’ve been thinking about this. No, I don’t believe education can be context-free. In response to your question, I started thinking about what it would mean to say that my dog is “educated”. For me, it means that she knows commands like “sit” and “come”. Yet, to another dog, those commands aren’t important at all. If a dog were to define education, I think it would mean something radically different. I cannot think of a definition for education that is universal. It seems to me that education is defined by culture and what is worth knowing within a particular context. It’s certainly a good question to ponder.

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