Literacy and Education

Being literate does not imply that you are educated. Education does not require literacy.

Mar 30, 2021

Alphabets : Novel :: Literacy : Education

Alphabets form words. Words form sentences. Sentences tell a story and form a novel.

In the world we live in, the first step towards education is literacy. Literacy provides you with the capability to share ideas. Sure, you can discuss them but not everybody is going to be waiting to discuss them with you. I can buy a book written by Albert Einstein even today and read it. At the same time, you can translate your ideas into the written word and share them with others, just as I am doing in this blog.

Education is the process of acquiring several ideas from several sources, building a perspective and an understanding of the way the world works. Many of us end up specialising and understand one specific thing better than others.
The pinnacle of being educated is in having the ability to create that which was not.

You might just be creating a report, undertaking an operation, fixing what is broken - in all of these cases you need to apply the perspective and understanding to achieve an outcome.

The unfortunate truth is that as easy as it is to check if a person is literate, it is that difficult to check if a person is educated.

You can simply put a sheet of printed paper in front of a computer engineer and know for sure that he is literate; it is almost impossible to figure out his/her ability to solve problems and create.

What is even worse is confusing literacy with education.

Many of the things that I write in this blog are reproduction from multiple sources that I have read up. Some posts such as this one are originals that I create all by myself. I can very easily make many of you feel that I am smart (read educated) just by reproducing many of the things I have read which you may not have had the time to read.

It takes a lot more effort to create something new. That is where true smartness lies. This is something an educated person does.

Education can also come in the absence of literacy. Take for instance the local grocery store owner. He knows how to sell and frankly that is all the skill he requires. He is able to build a business and create wealth for himself with that knowledge. He need not be necessarily literate to be able to do it. Many are not.

Think about the work that you are doing. Think. Are you educated or just literate?

Would love to hear what you think about it, do leave comments below.

Learning by Proxy with Vivek Srinivasan

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