Some thoughts on education after school
Finishing school or university can seem such a long time ago. It can often appear that this is where education ends; may be no more exam cramming — hitting the books may not be your thing; more than likely the books may have changed. Nonetheless, education is more than lectures and exams, it changes and can be much more challenging.
There are many lenses through which education can be view; one is personal development, the viewpoint of this article. The position taken here is education as goal directed behaviour — the purpose is to learn something for a specific reason. It is worth noting there are multiple lenses these concepts can be viewed, and it is worth exploring different avenues yourself if you have the time; you may be surprised with what you find.
Nevertheless, these are a few of my own thoughts about education and personal development and I hope that they may be of benefit to you.
Some thoughts on personal development
What is personal development? I would argue that it is a wide field, much wider than just self-help. It really speaks to the individual and their desire to seek some form of improvement. There may be many reasons why someone might seek improvement; it may stem from the Maslow’s desire for self-actualisation, like trying to find deeper meaning or purpose; a deep-seated interest in skill, like chess, guitar or foreign languages; an interest in a specific knowledge domain, like ancient history or the civil war; from a place of inadequacy, like trying to be more intelligent or charming to gain more friends; or a desire to improve one’s situation, like going to college to get a degree for a better job.
But whatever the reason it matters to the individual, and spurs them to some type of action. It is in the action and the process, that the learning can occur. However, the action may be helpful or maybe not- like putting your hand on a stove plate to see if it is warm may end in a trip to the emergency room. Nonetheless, there is a desire and some form of goal for wanting to develop.
Now, personal development in some circles has a bad reputation; the imagery of the self-help junkie and the charlatan guru; people feeling inadequate seeking an escape to ease the pain inside. Although stereotypes, and in some cases, there is a level of truth in these images; however, these allude to motivations and psychological states which are not true for all seeking learning and personal development; your motivations belong to you.
Maybe learning to write, paint, etc. for your own interest and development; finish a degree course for personal achievement and a better job etc. The point is that it does not have to sit within the self-help industry; you can help yourself and develop yourself without it and you certainly do not need a guru, and maybe wise to avoid one.
Some thoughts on education
I feel that education does not end at school it continues through life. School, classes, lectures and exams or only one form of education; it is only a small part of the educational opportunities available in life. Whether we see the education, such as in a work environment, or the education we receive in our home life and relationships; they still represent an education.
An important example, is that education may lie in meeting and talking to people. It could be argued that the social interaction is more useful way to learn than from books, as it includes both context and feedback. It is a dialogue to explore. Teaching of crafts, has historically been hands on and experienced; not book-based learning. Networking for instance, can bring out the, experience, feelings and opinions; unique information that will not be found in books; and often the most valuable, as it is the least easily accessible.
Action can include learning. It might be personal projects to help further your aims. I write to improve the quality of my writing; this can be leveraged and used for other means. But in the first instance, I need the skills and the only way to develop them is by reading and writing. However, reading will never replace the learning I get from “producing a product.” I can see the output, and I can try and gain feedback. Coding projects teach the skills reading how to code could not teach.
This can be more tacit than explicit; it can be in our changing intuitions and feelings, and an inexpressible feeling, say of how someone may react, cannot be easily written or transferred. It cannot be learnt from a book. However, for action to provide learning reflection is required; transferring the feelings, approaches, failures and successes to paper; facilitating the action of thinking; exploring the experience, and trying to gain the lessons from it.
One lesson I have learned is that educational opportunities may come wrapped in pain, suffering and hard work. It is the thinking at the time and the after the fact reflection; when the immediate feelings subside, allows a thoughtful examination of the day; and the learning, however painful to flow. It may not make the pain go away, but it does somewhat help. So, the educational aspect may be hard to see and recognise, but it is still there; learning opportunities are often hidden away and difficult to directly notice.
To make this perfectly clear, this is not an argument against reading, it is just taking a more expansive view to learning; that there are different ways in which one can learn. And, you have some choice in the matter, if you choose to educate yourself, you have some choice in how to do it. You do not necessarily have to just read books. So, a learning and a learning approach will need to be thought about holistically. An important aspect then is, what will you do and where will you spend your time?
However, at the start of the learning journey, it can be very daunting to figure out how to start and it can be useful to consume information to give a background sense of the field and what is involved. Now, it may be a purely intellectual endeavour to find more about a subject; but the “doing” of something, I have found reinforces learning from books. The talking to experts and enthusiasts provides context to the information, and each of these I have found are necessary to aid in development. However, the choice of methods and when to apply them are up to you; you are free to make your own decisions and will own the outcome.
So where do you start? Well, do you need information? Could you just attempt something and get feedback from the experience?
If you need information, then I feel there is a need to consider the point from Herbert Simon, that the excess of information leads to a paucity of attention. In this modern age there is so much information how will you choose what to consume? Is it a matter of Amazon comments? Well sometimes these can help. There are a wide range of booklists, audio and playlists available, but whose opinion do you trust and why? Are they credible sources and how would you find this out?
This I feel comes back to the point of why you want to consume information, what is it that you want to do with it? Is it to apply information to specific problems or domains; or is it just for knowledge’s sake?
So, where do you focus your resources and time?
I found from experience that it was important to choose a direction and do some trial and error to figure things out. Experimentation is something that I often do when just starting out, and it is often important missed point in many books, especially strategy. How do you know what you do not know?
There is a lot I do not know, so making a few initial guesses trying a few things helps provide some feedback that I can build on. It especially helps if, in the initial stages, these are kept relatively inexpensive; mistakes will be made at first and then eventually, there will be more clarity and knowledge on the subject to make better decisions.
For instance, reading a few books and then start to see what I could take from them. Based on my assessment of them, I might choose another, or review the references. In my experience, books with good references help, and it is often worth reviewing the references. I have found that in some books the arguments are a real stretch to the underlying referenced material.
With so much information it becomes time consuming to sort and filter the dross to find the valuable. The more I read the more information I get, but is it useful? How many books are essentially the same, or giving similar insight with only a slightly different twist or a repackaging of the same advice. How much is really packaging and fluff only? This has been something I have been struggling with. Moreover, as a beginner in anything there is so much to learn and to figure out what is the best place to start and focus on. So, there is a need to accept this is a learning curve, accept some mistakes and learn these lessons quickly.
Another source is the internet which can have lots of information and “free” in many places. But, in my opinion there is a lot of bad information on the internet. It can be contradictory, salesy and plain wrong. There are good sites and information on the web; but there are bad ones too. What I found was the need to view many sites on the same topic, and to see what level of disparities exist. Moreover, exploring deeper there is a limit to what can be found on the internet; in general, it is wide but shallow — the depths, where they exist, take an enormous amount of time to find. Remember, this time is a cost too; an opportunity cost to do something else; so free information is not necessarily free.
Throughout all eras, there has been good literature and trash. For instance, the book industry is about selling books, not necessarily about educating people or providing value. This is like booklists, these are people’s opinions and may be influenced by the opinions of others, and any monetisation strategies the site will have. Points like these need to be considered in looking at their credibility. I found getting a holistic view by looking at many sites gives an indication of where the confluence of opinion was, helping figure out if that was right for my aims. I would try a few of the respected sources, to give a balanced view.
Also, I found that the most credentialed individuals and sources within the specific domain are usually the most credible, as would be expected. It is worth bookmarking experts and returning to them later. It really is about accepting that this is an experiment and mistakes will be made. It will take some time to uncover the most important information. Depending on what you are trying to do, it may not exist, and you will need to think for yourself on how to fill in the blanks.
When consuming information there is a cost to your mindset. However, a few mistakes are a good learning experience, removing the naivety of the world, and help direct you towards better material. It takes time, and setting out on journey to gain better understanding and skill; patience is necessary. But be wary of the affect things can have on your mindset; it can be gruelling and dispiriting looking and trawling for information; challenging the emotions. Also, not all books are harmless, and some can encourage you down specific unhelpful paths. Personally, there is a need to think critically with anything you read and assess it on your opinion of its merits.
For instance, I am not a fan of self-help as in my experience much of it does not help and is a bit meaningless and repetitive. Personally, I found study skills books and some good free information on university websites for planning and goal setting (such as SMART goals), far cheaper, far better informed and far more useful. It took a little searching, but eventually, I came to the opinions above. I had to own some time and some lost money on books in this field. A mistake that I have learnt from.
But with a finite amount of time, there is a learning loop here. It really is about trying to think about the quality of the information and how it sits within your goals. The next stage is to think about what is available that might also help you? Do you need more information, books or resources; or can you start and put something together as a learning project. I have found ideas come in time; it just helps to work through things — learning builds. So, then the question becomes one of is the project or learning exercise worth your time?
If the answer is yes, then the quality will be in what you perceive your improvements to be. If reading books is helping you on your goal great. If not, are you reading the wrong stuff or do you need more practice instead of reading? If you are reading the wrong stuff, how do you find the right stuff? From personal experience, this comes only with time, dedication, perseverance and practice, but eventually the answers come; if you stick with it and listen to your intuition.
Conclusion
In conclusion, education does not end at school it carries through life whether we want it to or not. It is not confined to a classroom, lectures, books or exams. Books can be helpful if you read the right ones. But there are other ways to learn; action, experimentation and conversation are all valid. You have some choices in what you choose to learn and how you choose to do it. Also, where you will spend your time. But it is the reasons why you want to learn that are important, and be willing to accept that a few experiments will likely be necessary, and there will be a few mistakes made on the journey. Good luck
I hope you found this helpful; and any feedback is gratefully appreciated.
