I'm No Dummy

I'm pretty smart, but it could be said that my children are smarter than me. It could definitely be said. They learned in elementary school the things I learned in junior high. They learned in high school the things I learned in college. They are smart for sure. They have to be to make it in this world.

My married daughter has a generous  understanding for other humans that is unmatched by anyone I have ever known. She sees the goodness and potential in others before she sees anything else.

My seventeen year old daughter will be a senior next year. She has an ancient soul that understands the world like many never will.  She understands the purpose of life. She has eternal perspective.

My children have brilliant minds.

I believe that everyone does. Every human ever born is brilliant. Our minds are sponges that absorb everything around them.  Involving our hearts can accelerate the learning process. Even those who for various physical  reasons on the outside look as though they cannot absorb are somehow accruing all they need to for this life. They are gaining knowledge, even if it doesn't register in human measurements. While there are those who are able to stuff more facts, events, happenings, ideas and theories into their minds through schooling, I don't feel that those who are looking for other planes of  learning are any less informed than those who go further in traditional schooling.

Education is definitely important. It provides everything from basic living skills to broader understanding of the way things work. It helps our brains learn how to calculate and form opinions. It takes persistence and teaches patience. While I understand the need for education, I believe education can be earned in so many ways. Continuing education is a must for humans. We have an innate need to progress, but there is so much more to learning than traditional schooling. I do not begrudge traditional schooling and encourage any who seek those paths to do so with gusto. I admire anyone who can take in more and use it to broaden understanding. I do, however defend those who feel knowledge can be gained outside of the classroom.  Simply put, I'm no dummy because I don't have a PHD. Life is a grand school. Living and living well provides knowledge that cannot be found in a classroom.

A mother taking care of her children is certainly as intelligent as a doctor. An auto mechanic is figuring things out just as effectively as an aerospace engineer. A nanny uses just as many skills in a day as a marketing director. The learning and fact retention can be broadly different, but the intelligence used for all these jobs is enormous. The guitarist plucking strings is using his brain just as actively as the professor teaching history. It is just different information.  How we process and use that information is just as important as having it. Knowledge itself is not power. Knowledge becomes power depending on its use.  The point of living is to make a difference-for the better-everywhere, as often as possible in all the ways we know how.

So get an education, and get a good one. Find it in all that you do, take advantage of as many varieties as you can, but understand that having a piece of paper that says you absorbed facts in a classroom doesn't make you any better than the person that learned in the school of life. It just means you learned it differently. How you use it is what really matters.

 Post script: I have been asked if I wrote this because I don't have a college education or if
I disagree with continued education. To answer the first item, I have gone to college as well as completed certification at a vocational school, so I have experienced all of the above. I still say life teaches in ways a classroom can't.  To the second I say gain your learning in any and every way you desire. But know that those who gain knowledge in a different way are just as able as those who complete a doctorate in science.