S/O of who is Edgar Allen Poe? Don't we all have gaps?

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

 

Myself, I think that "educated" takes many shapes and forms and doesn't hinge on someone being familar with one specific author. :)

Your thinking is right.

 

Sorry ladies but I must beg to differ. I believe there is a loose definition of being well-educated and/or culturally literate. Many people may have different sets of skills or knowledge bases but that is not equal to what is being discussed here as "well-educated."

 

Take for example Thomas Jefferson-he is probably a popular and decent example of a well-educated/culturally literate individual. He was knowledgeable about other languages and cultures, had read most of what comprised the Western Canon at his time, well versed in political theory, law, religion, the arts, architecture, botany and agriculture. I'm sure the list could continue. However, there were also plenty of highly productive and necessary members of Colonial society that did not have such an education. They were able to build barrels, build/fix machinery, produce crops, run stores, and many other necessary (and skilled) forms of labor. However, they were not "well-educated" nor culturally literate.

 

I'm sure there are modern equivalents today. I know engineers who earn better pay as nannies, theoretical physicists who work as repair men; they are well educated people who speak multiple languages and participate regularly in the "conversation" despite what you may be biased to think about someone in their profession. I also know people in the exact opposite position (ie their profession would seem to imply well-educated but they actually aren't).

 

There are plenty of necessary and contributing members in society today that are not "well-educated". They may be good, decent, hardworking individuals with a solid set of skills in their area. That does not mean they are "well (but differently)-educated." Not being well-educated doesn't necessarily imply anything about their potential to become well-educated nor is it a slanderous comment. It is simply a fact.

[LilyK]

Originally Posted by Colleen

Quote:

Originally Posted by fivetails

Myself, I think that "educated" takes many shapes and forms and doesn't hinge on someone being familar with one specific author. :)

 

Your thinking is right.

 

 

I have a DF with four hs'd kids. None of them have ever read "traditional" literature. They will all graduate from high school having only read biographies of Christian missionaries, poorly-written biographies of Christian missionaries. Would you guys really consider her kids well-educated? If education is really so relative, wouldn't these kids be just as educated as the child who is working through Homer, Shakespeare, and even Poe?

 

BTW, I don't remember anyone one on this long thread saying that education "hinges on ONE specific author." Not knowing someone like Poe is, however, a pretty good clue that someone is undereducated. I didn't say unworthy, or dumb, or less valuable, or a less productive member of society. I said undereducated. I would say that my dh is undereducated. He would say that he is undereducated. Yet, he is vastly smarter than I am.