An Existential Education by Mathilde

An Existential Education by Mathilde - April 2015 Scholarship Essay

The purpose of an education is to teach us to make choices. Every day, every person makes choices, major and minor. Taken together, these choices determine who we are. An education lays out these choices, whether they are intellectual, moral, or practical, and gives us the tools needed to make deliberate choices. An education which fails to confront us with choices and inspire us to act on these choices is a useless collecting of information, and does not deserve to be called an education at all.

An education presents us with intellectual choices by presenting a vast array subjects to be studied. Because no one can possible master all of the knowledge that humanity currently possesses, education forces us to decide which particular pieces of knowledge we wish to acquire. Choosing to acquire a particular piece of knowledge requires that we objectively evaluate not only our level of interest in that field, but also our particular strengths and weaknesses. Then we must make a deliberate choice to develop strengths or overcome weaknesses in order to achieve the knowledge or skill we seek.

The moral choices which an education presents are twofold. Firstly, an education brings us into contact which values alien to our own. This forces us to critically evaluate how we make our moral choices and to consider how those choices might affect others, especially others with values different from our own. More importantly, and education brings us into contact not only with values that differ from ours, but with people who differ from ourselves. How we interact with these people, and the degree of empathy or hostility we embrace, are choices that fundamentally shape our moral being.

Finally an education presents us with a whole host of practical decisions, ranging from study habits to living arrangements to ways to defray costs. These decisions may seem trivial and ancillary to the primary purpose of an education, but in reality these decisions are precisely the ones which have the greatest impact on who we become. Whether we are disciplined or spontaneous, hard working or easy going, gregarious or aloof, these are all qualities that do not just happen. We develop them as we grow, the result of a thousand daily decisions. The purpose of an education is to present us with these decisions and make us aware of impact of our choices.