Crown jewels
No matter your age, personal education increases your personal confidence, writes Mark Barnes
Education is the ultimate equaliser, its absence the ultimate divider. Never mind the haves versus the have nots – it’s the knows versus the know nots that decides who’s in charge, who wins or loses.
Education is not just about the accumulation of knowledge, both general and specific; it’s the foundation of confidence.
Beyond-school education opportunities present themselves in many forms, ranging from studying towards a university degree to the vast range of courses offered by technical colleges and other institutions of tertiary learning, to taking a cookery course or having a golf lesson.
There’s a difference between knowledge and experience and these inputs are required in different measure; to solve a problem, to fix something, to get something done, or just get you through everyday life.
It’s often said that people don’t know what they don’t know. I think it’s equally true to say that people don’t know what they do know. We’re learning subconsciously all the time.
Clearly, some pursuits in life require specific, exacting qualifications. Certain minimum standards sometimes need to be met, particularly when the application of that knowledge or skill can put other people at risk, or where mistakes can have fatal consequences.
You cannot win a pilot’s licence or a dentist’s qualification in a lottery. Imagine if you could! You can’t manage other people’s money or even take in their deposits (members of the public) unless you’re licensed to do so by the appropriate regulatory authorities. This is in the common interest.
There are other jobs that you simply can’t do without some form of training or apprenticeship, usually both theoretical and practical.
Academic education can only take you so far (sometimes just to the front gate) before it needs to be augmented by practical experience to produce an overall result. We should be careful not to misplace the weightings we apply to the component parts of knowledge and experience that come together to define an individual’s capacity to actually get something done.
Whichever way you slice it, there can be no doubt that education will empower you. Embrace it. No matter how old you are, or at what stage you may find yourself on the education ladder. Seek out opportunities to learn, and gobble them up!
The first hurdle to cross, though, is to get over thinking it’s beyond you. It isn’t. Once you enter any of the formal learning streams, the first thing you’ll learn is that you can learn. Knowledge comes in bite-size chunks and we all have the chewing capacity to absorb and store it at our own pace.
Beyond whichever qualification you may get, you’ll emerge with the confidence that, no matter how thick the textbook, or complicated the formula, or fancy the language, you’re no longer scared to have a look, and ask for help. Once you’ve conquered that initial mindset hurdle, you’ll be open for learning for the rest of your life. And if don’t have a go, you’ll probably always feel lesser for it.
Sometimes it’s just the language, spoken by the people who’ve already passed the course and want it to be kept mysterious and apparently difficult for those not there yet. Don’t be fooled by those who talk clever — speak and use big words — their armour is thin and easily pierced. And when you get there, remember not to be like that.
Not all of us can be rocket scientists. Some of those super-clever okes don’t even know how to braai a boerie just right, never mind when to turn over a steak on an open fire.
The wheels of the economy aren’t kept turning by those most academically qualified among us. On the contrary, it’s the quality and output of the general workforce that determines the sustainability and growth prospects for an economy. On-the-job skills training and experience is also education, and it produces our most valuable resource — human capital.
If you take the time to notice, you’ll see the wonder of experience at work — the painter, the tree feller, the brick layer, the postal sorter … stop and watch next time you get a chance.
If we take the imperative of further education seriously, individually and nationally, the end result will be a more competitive nation. The consequences of that will be increased economic prosperity and the attraction of investment capital. That will bring with it ever-higher hurdle rates for an educated society, which we will meet. We’ll move into increasingly higher leagues.
Personal education increases personal confidence, which in turn enables more people to engage in a broader understanding and the development of common purpose, and to reduce the the risks of exploitation and division. You study, we also win.
It’s pretty cool to know more today than you did yesterday. Go out there and absorb knowledge. Nobody ever complained that they’d learnt too much. Too many wish they’d learnt more. Don’t accept your lot before you’re done. Don’t get left behind.