Curiosity the key to education

We have a funny idea about education. We tell our youth it is important to get an education. We think we need to get through school. The goal is to get through high school, then a degree. We don’t ask enough — what is an education? Am I suddenly educated because I have a high school diploma, a BA, an MA or a doctorate?

I have always been curious. I often didn’t “get it” when someone explained it to me. I never really understood something until I worked it out for myself — built a house, sailed on the ocean, fished for my family. Solving each successive problem my own way gives me impetus to take on the next.

I sometimes don’t use the standard formula someone else found. Confidence to try something new came after each challenge, especially when someone else advised: “you need to hire a specialist,” “get a professional.” I often felt that was dumbing me down, like I was handicapped for not knowing. The whole point was to learn while doing, not hiring someone else to do it.

I didn’t leave university “knowing about the molecular building blocks of life, sitting out there in the cold, tenuous gas between the stars.” (Carl Sagan in “The Demon-haunted World”) I left university with the advice of a professor, “Now get a pair of Osh b’ Gosh coveralls and go live in the woods on Vancouver Island. You will be happier than hanging this piece of paper on the wall.”

I did. I built a sawmill, logged off a road to the top of a mountain, built a three-storey houseboat, sailed the Pacific, and got my education visiting Europe, the Arctic and Australia, creating business along the way. Curiosity gave me an education, and I was never out of a job.