Educating Yourself

Education for oneself or educating yourself has many levels. You know what intrigued me to write about this topic? Seeing an Instagram post about how California has built one college and 23 correctional institutions since 1980.

Crazy, right?

Apparently, Kim Kardashian posted about this project on IG. But, I had to check the numbers; so I went to good ole Wikipedia to validate the college numbers. I found out that a few for-profit colleges have been built or founded in California since 1980 - some have shutdown, are non-profit institutions of higher learning, or do not have undergrad but include options to receive masters and doctoral degrees.

On the correctional side...

My goodness!...23 institutions. The message that was portrayed in seeing this image on social media, though the numbers were off, pinpointed the urgency to build prisons instead of universities. What are we doing? Why more bars over learning more bars (words, solving problems, etc)? 

You know, this summer I visited the Bay Area for the first time. Beautiful San Fran and Oakland. Yet, two structures stuck out: Alcatraz in the middle of evening fog in the San Francisco Bay and Pelican Bay, a monstrous structure that juts out off the shore and sits directly across from plush real estate just outside of San Fran. Of course, there are solid institutions of higher learning nearby such as, California Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and more. However, a sense of educational loss surfaced with the IG post and in seeing Pelican Bay. 

Is the educational system rigged? Is it unfair? What about learning on your own? 

School may not stand strong for everyone, but it stands firmly rooted in success for thousands upon thousands of graduates every year. We cannot entirely rely on projects, tests, and homework to get us through life. We have to continue our pursuit of education on our own. 

And, it is a pursuit. A process. 

Whether an individual has a tough background or not, he or she can learn good and sustainable lessons that will prompt success, right? Environment, experiences, the ability to overcome harsh experiences, having interests, focus, and more can affect how one is educated. But, why is the disconnect far and wide between institutions of higher learning and correctional institutions? Could it be found in some of the answers in the next section? As a society, we spend a lot on education but some areas still suffer. So, the pursuit has some weak spots, unfortunately. 

Words of Teachers

Below are answers to a question I posed. The question: in your opinion, what does it mean to educate yourself? Read the answers below and answer the question yourself. 

Take the time and effort to learn what is being told to you.

Take classes and practice your trade.

To keep learning about something important to me or someone else.

Apply multiple investigative techniques to progress toward deeper understanding of multiple sides of an idea.

So...

Simple question and difficult answer: where do we go from here?

Derek- @teemptraining derekteempt@gmail.com