What Is An Educated Person

Self-Described 'Well Educated Person' Is Also Incredibly Obnoxious

The employee calmly tells a third party that the female passenger was cursing while talking on the phone (presumably loudly given the volume of her voice during the exchange ). The passenger's response: "I was not cursing. Excuse me. Do you know what schools I've been to and how well-educated I am?" This is a compelling argument on her behalf, given that (1) we all know well-educated people never curse and that (2) the train employee should clearly have already been briefed on what schools the passengers attended.

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At this point, of course, the passenger is still on the phone, because everybody knows that carrying on two conversations at once is the only educated thing to do. She ends the conversation by saying, "Bye, babe," and the employee continues to explain that she asked the passenger to stop using foul language, to take her conversation to the vestibule or to get off the train. The passenger interrupts this to correct what is obviously the misconception at the root of the conflict: "I'm sorry. Do you think I'm a little hoodlum?"

"How dare you think I was being profane," she continues, using that vocabulary to its fullest, and demands to know what words the employee took offense to. The employee mentions "the f-bomb." Her response: "From my mouth? Excuse me. Do you know how well educated I am?" And thus the cycle continues. There's a tense moment when the passenger touches the employee, but eventually everyone leaves the scene. Did they stop the train and kick her off? Was she allowed to stay? Was she truly throwing f-bombs around? It seems we're left to our best %*&!ing educated guesses.

Virgil H. Castleberry: The Enslaving of Mankind

Put a man's body in chains and you must guard against his escape; put his mind in chains and he will guard against his own freedom.  Indenture his soul by convincing him that he should be a slave for his own good, and he will stay bound of his own accord.  This is the end result of any action that manipulates thinking and behavior, and is the purpose of training, as opposed to education. Training convinces a person of what they should do; education teaches fundamentals and encourages the ability to think.  Training manipulates a person into acting within societal norms; education brings an understanding of society and how we fit within it.  Training causes us to act by rote; education allows us to act by reason.  Training forces us to act for others; education allows us to act for ourselves, within the constraints of society.  Training's end result is depression and anxiety; education's end result is self-confidence and exaltation.  Training brings slavery; education brings freedom. When a person is trained to perform a specific job, with little education, that person finds themselves locked into this job, with little hope of change, regardless of their unhappiness.  An educated person can apply knowledge from all sources, and determine their own path; this is the pursuit of happiness, and this ability is being trained out of people.  A trained person can perform one job; an educated person can read and comprehend what is necessary to perform many functions.  The incredible rise in the popularity of vocational schools and highly focused college degrees is the result of the lack of a basic education during childhood; children are not educated to think, but instead are trained to be obedient and to perform.  Those who would push the envelope of behavior are diagnosed as ADD/ADHD and given mood and mind altering drugs.  We are told that there is too much information, so we must specialize; this perceived quantity of information is not the cause, but the effect of a lack of general education. In all aspects of life the attempt to train, rather than educate, is predominant.  Consider:  who believes they would benefit from your thinking, rather than acting in the prescribed manner?  The government?  No.  Your church?  No.  Your school?  No.  Your employer?  No.  Your spouse or significant other?  No.

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What is an educated person?, proceedings of the fifth annual Faculty Symposium, Cuyahoga Community College, Metropolitan Campus, Saturday, March 5, 1988

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