Knowledge Vs. Education by Anthony

Knowledge Vs. Education by Anthony - December 2014 Scholarship Essay

When I was young, I believed only one thing mattered in the world: Knowledge. I was obsessed with collecting data and formulating theories. I fell in love with the sciences and applied mathematics of the world. I wanted nothing more than to sink into a book, and understand the concepts which structured the world. What I never wanted was friendship.

Friendship was not Knowledge. Friendship was a weakness. I thought that friendship was something that those who did not revel in Knowledge as I did retreated to, a shallow sort of consolation prize for those who either would not or could not learn of the wonders of physics and engineering. I felt much the same way about those who preferred the arts- to be honest, I think I was rather baffled about the concept of Leonardo Da Vinci, a man who I still hold in the highest esteem, practiced both the arts and the sciences, and often mixed the two to achieve greater Knowledge.

That was until what I consider to be my true education started.

I remember the moment my life changed with perfect clarity. I was helping another student understand multiplication. It was a concept I had studied years prior. Normally, I enjoyed helping other students because, to me, it proved my idea of the superiority of knowledge over Friendship. But in that moment, when I was helping somebody who just couldn’t understand something, I felt a desire that I had never even contemplated feeling before.

I felt the first spark of Friendship.

I taught the student and quickly moved on, both unsure and afraid of my emotional revelation. I did not need emotions. I did not want them, even. And yet, I felt the desire for Friendship all the same. The next day, upon my first sight of that child, I did something which went in the face of everything I ever thought. I struck up a conversation, and became Friends with the student.

That is what education has taught me. Education, to me, is not something to be learned in school or a book. Education is what happens to one who observes both the physical reality and the imaginary realities around them. My search for knowledge began at a very young age, but my Education, that into the compatibility of Friendship and Knowledge, began when I first talked to another human being with no logical reason. Education changed my life for the better, because I became educated on how to be human- on allowing both feeling and logic into one's life.