What's in an education?

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about what is it I really want from my education and how it's going to play out in my life. First off, I'm not at all worried about finding a job - a great, fun job that pays really well. Second, although it took me some time, I figured out that there's a big difference between what I want from my education and what kind of job I wind up with. That may not sound like a big distinction but it is.

College seems to have become far less about education, liberation, and exploration (note the alliteration?) and far more about churning out working drones. Part of taking back my education is resisting the efforts of the educational institution to mold me into a certain form that's fit for a certain job. Education is about so much more than that but the pieces beyond preparation for the corporate workworld seem to have gotten obscured by the race for a bigger paycheck.

For me, college is about finding other people who are interested in either the same or complementary ideas, building strong communities of compassionate and caring people who want to make the world a better place. It's about finding resources and leaders; perhaps becoming a resource and a leader. It's about much more than the piece of paper and $1/hr raise that are so often the reward. Higher education should be about bringing people together on an infinite variety of levels and around an endless array of ideas and interests - it should be a place where we can learn each other's strengths and buttress each other's weaknesses.

When did education become almost solely about getting a better job? How did we lose the joy of expanding our minds and connective circles through the vehicle of education? Rote learning, mechanical instruction, and lifeless, out-of-context information have become the watchwords of higher education. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle, getting the information I want the way I want it, but it's not always difficult. I've discovered that much of the secret is developing an authentic connection with my instructors and mentors.

I'm beginning to believe that although the information is important, building those relationships and sharing the experiences is even more vital to my growth and evolution into the person I've chosen to be. According to my spiritual teachers, all information - all the pieces of all the puzzles - is out there, ready and waiting for us to tap into. We memorize things because we haven't yet mastered the art of simply 'knowing' the appropriate piece at the appropriate time.

By my reckoning, this renders the actual bits of data far less important than the context in which they're useful or the other beings we use them with. My final thought for this post is that perhaps we need to ask ourselves some serious questions about the actual purpose of education.