Ranting
for
a
well-rounded
education

[the following rant has been re-read, I have  discovered that it has no coherency, and I don't seem to make any point, but read anyway]

I have been brought up to believe in conflicting values of education. Religion, careers, culture, science and satisfaction of knowing has given me a different outlook on what education means. 

Thanks to my father, for the part of my life that has had the greatest influence in my thinking, I was subjected to a system that rewarded open dialogue and individual thought as opposed to the "listen to lectures and perform as expected in horrible finals" approach that some of my siblings went through. Besides an open door for creativity and exploration, the pseudo American education system that I have gotten used to has made be become attached to (what seems to me) a  very American concept of the well rounded education. At home, my dad never ceased emphasizing the value of science and technology, therefore he was ready to feed any hunger I may have had for learning in that direction. However at the same time my family never really discouraged my creative edge, or never frowned upon those social studies classes that I had great interest in. Maybe at the time it was not apparent to them that my interest would develop into something serious. However, it was not apparent to me either. I got almost the same satisfaction in performing well in my science/math classes as I did in my social studies classes. I was headed for the well rounded utopia where people have extensive knowledge of all aspects of living and learning, where people actually use both sides of their  brain. This became more apparent to me as I entered high school. 

Despite all that, when it came time to choose my line of study in the college I hoped to go to, I had to decide something "practical". My father was now more vocal about his interest, and that was medical school. He never considered engineering, and neither did anyone else. However, somehow I felt pressured into subjecting myself to hard sciences. The pressure may have not been that apparent, but I felt it for some reason. That is what I ended up doing, choosing Computer Engineering.

That was the time of my life when I could not have really foreseen the downside of a more specialized degree than a major. I though I could somehow make it through and possibly find the material interesting enough to  force my 'other side' into slots of spare time. Unfortunately, my two sides decided to go into  war during my freshman year in University. I seemingly lost all interest in my scientific pursuits. The molecule, though less mysterious, became less interesting. Science became a pain, but at the same time I could not live without it. Of course there are a lot more complications to this story that might slightly explain why I entered the bottom tier of my class instead of higher positions I  had been used to. 

Perhaps one of my problems was not finding enough cooperation between science and society. While talk of science vs. arts have mostly not been part of my academic life. At home I was well aware of how non-scientific pursuits were often considered inferior. And masculinity was almost always attached to science and engineering.

Finally after a tumultuous year, I have decided that I should pursue what I have been inclined to pursue, that is a mixed education with a fair balance of everything. It goes with my philosophy in life, that is to look at all aspects of anything. I am trying each day to make this more possible. I  want to know the world, not just the mechanism that drives it, or the things that controls it, but it affects everything else and in turn how everything else affects it. To me, it is clearly linked to wisdom.

A friend once wrote in an attempt to answer my question about the links between wisdom and truth,

"Wisdom is not acquired by becoming filled with knowledge. But rather by becoming emptied of questions."

Although I would love to find an alternative to being "filled with knowledge", right now, what I can see is, in order for me to cease questioning, I need to pursue knowledge. In my pursuit of knowledge, I am finding out more about "understanding" things rather than simply recording factual knowledge.

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