I’ve been rereading Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now. I am familiar with criticism of his work, but I am a fan nonetheless—maybe it comes from the fact that I believe we can read works even if we dispute some of the points and still find them worthy. In his chapter on “Knowledge” Pinker writes:
“So much changes when you get an education. You unlearn dangerous superstitions, such as that leaders rule by divine right, or that people who don’t look like you are less human. You learn that there are other cultures that are tied to their lives as you are to yours, and for no better or worse reason. You learn that charismatic saviors have led their countries to disasters. You learn that your own convictions, no matter how heartfelt or popular, may be mistaken. You learn that there are better or worse ways to live, and that other people and other cultures may know things that you don’t. And not least, you learn that there are ways of resolving conflicts without violence” (p. 253).
Regardless of your opinion of Pinker’s other words, I do not believe there can be much to dispute with the selection I quoted above. We do know that those who become educated see the world because of those things Pinker mentions. That is one of the reasons we become educated and that we want others to become educated. The idea that we become educated to “get a good job” is a recent idea that is (in my opinion) misguided. I entered college with the idea of becoming a teacher (which I did); that is one of the few fields in which one does pursue education for the purpose of getting a job. If I did not complete my education and get licensed, I would not have been a teacher.
While I was training to be a teacher, my teachers (at the University of Vermont in the mid 1980s) also educated me. Little did I know that an education was going to be far more useful in being a successful teacher than any training.
One of the talking points when folks talk about education today is “don’t tell what to think, teach them how to think.” Advocates for this brand of education are unlikely to agree with Pinker’s vision of educated people. It is assumed that anyone who becomes educated and adopted Pinker’s vision must have been taught what to think. Unfortunately, if you adopt Pinker’s vision of educated people, individuals who reject that vision cannot differentiate “I learned this on my own when getting educated” and “being taught what to think.”
I am educated. I have earned a high school diploma, Bachelor of Science degree, Master of Arts degree, and Doctor of Philosophy degree. There was a time I was also an advocate for “teach them what to think not how to think.” I am here to tell you, Pinker’s vision of one who is educated is accurate, and it arises naturally from being educated.