As of this past summer, I am the proud parent of….a brand new, backyard shed! It’s a strange thing to be proud of, especially considering that it was delivered pre-built by an Amish company.

But many of my summer weekends were consumed with preparing the site and building a foundation. We had to remove old trees and shrubs, move a drainpipe, and because the ground is sloped, we built a box and filled it with gravel to form a level pad for the shed to sit on. I had lots of help, but it was laborious work.

When you’re digging a hole by hand you have time to think, and this work got me thinking about the purpose of education.

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Before the summer began, I went out to dinner with some colleagues following a seminar. A few students nearing graduation were at the table and one, in particular, was passionately upset about the education that he’d had thus far. Beyond tuition, he had spent money on books, videos, and seminars to learn things that he felt his instructors should have taught him. I didn’t respond at the moment but if I did, I would have said,

You were wrong to expect college to teach you everything you would need to know.

He felt cheated by what he hadn’t learned, while I mostly felt grateful for what I had learned. We had had nearly the exact same education but different expectations, about the goal of that education, that led to different experiences.

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We live in the Information Age; when a WiFi connection and the click of a button can produce the entire digital universe at your fingertips. Learning absolutely everything about a subject is an impossible goal, and one that, I hope, no student or teacher would ever strive for. But the true purpose of education is rarely discussed.

What Is The Goal of Education?

I’m no engineer but I know that if you want a structure to stand the test of time, whether it’s a backyard shed or the Eiffel Tower, it needs a foundation below-ground to support the building above. The foundation often doesn’t get the same attention as the building above; it is often unglamorous and arduous, but nevertheless, extremely important.

Likewise, I’ve come to believe that the ultimate goal of education is for students to build a foundation and to develop the necessary skills to build upon that foundation.

Building a Foundation

In education, building a foundation can include learning terminology and accumulating a wide breadth of familiarity with the current knowledge in the field. This knowledge base prepares students to take licensing exams, enter a training program, or start a career with a certain level of competence. However, just like the foundation of a building, it’s not the end goal; it’s designed to be built upon.

Developing Learning Skills

In order to successfully build upon a foundation of knowledge, students must also develop learning skills. These can include the ability to recall old information quickly, to critically evaluate new information, and to make connections between seemingly different ideas.

Martin Luther King Jr. expressed these ideas much more concisely than I when he said,

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.

The development of students as effective learners seems to be a less explicitly known objective of education than the first but is equally important. The confidence that students gain in their ability to learn can carry forward with them for years, creating a habit of lifelong learning, among other benefits.

Why Does Building a Foundation Matter?

In my experience at college, I learned and forgot the same information many times. But every time I forgot it and then relearned it, the information came back a little faster and stuck around a little longer. And so, when a first-semester student expressed to me their worry that they weren’t learning everything fast enough, my message to them was simple,

Do your best to learn as much as you can today. But realize that learning will continue well past graduation; you have a lifetime to build upon the foundation that you’re building now.

Not only does this way of viewing education reduce anxiety and pressure on students to know and understand everything immediately, but it has the same effect on teachers. Education becomes something different; it is no longer about the transfer of knowledge from teachers to students.

As a teacher with this view of education, my focus has shifted to helping students develop their learning skills. Instead of providing an answer, I ask questions to see the level of knowledge they’re starting with. Knowing what they need to know, I guide them, showing them the tools they can use to construct their own understanding. And often, I learn from them too. I frequently admit my limited knowledge base, and it grows as they share their experiences and we spend time discussing ideas.

***

If my frustrated colleague understood what the purpose of his education was, he would realize that his angst and animosity is unnecessary. He has done everything right, and college has hardly failed him. He is using the learning skills that he developed to continue building upon a sturdy foundation, and I have no doubt he will have a long and successful career.

Whether building a backyard shed or a professional career, it begins with building a foundation.

 

Keep learning,

Dr. K

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Comment below:

Was your college experience successful in helping you to build a foundation? Why or why not?