LoL Newsletter Membership Issue #5

The function of Education nowadays

If you ask someone on the street what education is, you may get an answer like "Education is about learning". Well, of course, that's not wrong. But learning what? In today's education, besides imparting knowledge, degrees, job opportunities, and social status, what else does it bring?

On paper, the current education system mainly brings two types of educational content: theoretical knowledge and social dynamics. Theoretical knowledge refers to anything written on the course syllabus; while social dynamics refer to everything beyond theoretical knowledge. (I know this classification is oversimplified lol.)

Let's talk about theoretical knowledge first. We are very familiar with theoretical knowledge, to the point where we often say in daily life: "Education is about reading books and acquiring knowledge." But upon closer examination, this may not be entirely true. If education is about pursuing cutting-edge knowledge, then self-learning may be the best way, and it may be much more efficient than going to school, especially for today's young people (such as Generation Z). As long as you have the spirit of "digging deep to the bottom," online videos, forums, books, and blogs can basically make you an expert on any topic.

However, for most people, education is still a form of socialization. After the Industrial Revolution, education, especially school education, basically grouped a random group of people into a social unit and then learned from the same teacher. In fact, most of what you learn from teachers and will continue to use in the future is not that much. On the contrary, you may learn more from your peers.