Anna Karabeyan
English 305
Professor Cross
March 1, 2001

Every person has his or her idea of what education should be. One wants to be educated or go to universities so he or she could have a higher degree. Some other person wants to get education just to fulfill one's self. Many people get college education thinking that they can make more money. Education is not about money; it is a lifetime process that enables one to satisfy one's inner self. It makes a person feel good for who they are inside.

Jon Spayde's article "Learning in the Key of Life" made me think about the different aspects of education, such as college education or street education. Which one is a more necessity for survival in today's world. The question that arises in my mind is does education help us during everyday life. Maybe education does not provide the necessity tools to survive in the real world. We are not wasting our time in the institutions; however, the real world is a bigger school than any other schools that we attend.

Unfortunately, 21st century's definition of school is technology for example computers, just like Jon Spayde states, "For our policy heads, education equals something called training for competitiveness, which often boils down to the mantra of "more computers, more computers." (60) Education is not based on technology and computers that our society is after today. Computers do not make a person happy or fulfill one's life. Canadian historian and critic John Ralston Saul claims, "Technical training is training in what is sure to be obsolete soon anyway; it's self-defeating, and it won't get you through the next 60 years of your life." (61) Education is a lifetime process, and one that will never complete in the sixteen years of normal schooling.

We should focus not in to the technology such as computers only, but just like Spayde suggests into the humanities as well. Spayde quotes novelist and journalist Earl Shorris. Shorris started an Ivy League-level adult education course in humanities for low-income people. Shorris told his students that "You've been cheated. Rich people learn the humanities, you didn't. The humanities are a foundation for getting along in the world for thinking, for learning to reflect on the world instead of just reacting to whatever force is turned against you." (60) Humanities help people to live a better life. It makes a person rich not in terms of materialistic aspects, but in terms of self-satisfaction and fulfilling one's life.

Education does not end after high school or after university. It is true, "School helps, but it's just the beginning of the engagement between ideas and reality." (61) A well-educated person is one who has not only studied in a university but one who is able to control and analyze everyday life. Most learning takes place from everyday experience, which occurs not in schools but in the streets, such as during everyday activities. Just like Spayde argues, "A truly good education may well be one carpentered out of the best combination we can make of school, salon, reading, online, exploration, walking, the streets, hiking in the woods, museums, poetry classes at the Y, and friendship." (58) We do not learn all the life's obstacles from school or books, but from real people during everyday life.

It is true that formal education should be known, in another words peoples basic school education at a young age. Every person should know his or her history, math, English. This is important too; however, it does not stop there. Not all-important learning can be done inside the classroom to create a rich human being in the terms of life. Formal education, or learning, provides technical knowledge that can not fully be used in the outside world. In order to fulfill ones life a person needs combination of formal education and in-the-street education. Spayde suggests that our tradition of studying the Greek classics because the Philosopher Martha Nussbaum insists, "The very idea that we should have a list of Great Books would have horrified the ancients."(62) This is because the Greek education "Came largely from firsthand experience, in the marketplace, in the Assembly, in the theater, and in the religious celebration; through what the Greek youth saw and heard." (62) The best point emphasized is that Socrates met and challenged his students in the streets, not at some Athenian Princeton.

Education is a long-term project. Learning takes place around the span of a lifetime and there always will be something new to learn. Therefore, people should study what interests them, or they will never be good at it. Goethe encounters that "People can not learn what they do not love." (62) Even in this busy world we will find time for the things we love. By studying what is valuable to us, we will be inspired to learn. Part of the learning, process takes place outside of the classroom where people discover what interests them.

Each individual has his or her opinion about how one receives a good education. Today's society is too much caught up on school that a person attends, that they do not emphasize the fact that even though they have attended to colleges, they are still missing a lot on many other aspects that enriches one's education. Mike Rose agrees with Spayde on the fact that school should not be only about the "Great Books." He states:

There is a strong impulse in American education curious in a country with such an ornery streak of antitraditionalism to define achievement and excellence in terms of the acquisition of a historically validated body of knowledge an authoritative list of books and allusions, a canon. (115)

Education is defined differently by every culture. There are cultures that technology is the most important and that is where they emphasize their education. For other cultures there are other subjects that might be more in interest like religion. It all depends on "What a culture considers most important." (58) But still there is the fact that most people believe that the education they have received did not prepare them for the world we live in today. Therefore, the education on Humanities is important because it makes us focus more on human affairs that accurse daily than any other subject.

There is nothing more truly than John Spayde's words that state "The whole world's a classroom." It is true that in today's society we do need computers, however, they are not the main ingredient to survive in real life. There are many people who are very well educated, but can not interact socially. There are many other ways to become educated besides in the classrooms. The school does not prepare us for the real world. Learning does take place around the span of a lifetime. I believe humanity courses will enlighten one's ability to understand what a true happiness really mean and make one's life better. Happiness should not be about unnecessary pleasure.