Education Through Experience Essay

Education Through Experience How does one learn? Is learning part of the modern day media induced generation? Do we learn by flipping through television channels and reading magazine articles? Or does learning run deeper than that? In todays world we would like to believe that by turning on the Discovery channel or actually finishing a Harry Potter novel we have learned it all. We Justify our media obsession by saying how much we are learning when we stay â€Å"glued to the tube† or nose deep in the latest fashion magazine. It is quite agreeable to say that we do collect many facts and details from reading books, magazines, and from watching television. But after all is said and done, what have you committed to memory? Do you find yourself more interested in the facts or the dramatic plot of the movie you were watching? Television is not a sin. We all watch it from time to time. But when people rush home so that they don’t Jeopardize their TV time, it seems as if it really has become a problem. How can you expect your children to efficiently learn when they are lopped down in front of the TV or are obsessing over what they are reading in their magazines? Education is not gained by becoming obsessed with the media. It is gained through experience. By seeing and doing things, the people of the world can come to know and understand what education is all about. Not about how â€Å"hot† people are, or about how much money you can make from winning a game show, but about how the way things of this world truly work. By being open to new experiences, and new opinions we are able to step outside of our comfort zones and ee things through another perspective. As Plato rightly states in The Allegory of the Cave, an educated person is said to be someone that strives to learn more, and that is open to a variety of beliefs and notions from other people. Another important factor in gaining education through experience is being able to communicate what you have learned to others. Communication is huge in learning new material. We communicate with others in the world every day yet, we rarely â€Å"truly communicate. A conversation should create something in common by making genuine connection, not by being a short or one-sided opinion. By creating something in common and sharing educational experiences, the conversation allows input from all sides no matter how differnt the viewpoint and creates something new (Bohm). Today we run frantically to Google or ask. com when we find we have a question about the way things work. Sure these search engines are helpful, but they prove our generation to be lazy and solely dependent on the technology. What if there were no computers? What if there were no flat-screen televisions to tell us everything? What if, God forbid, we actually had to have a conversation with someone? Communication is the divine way of comparing and contrasting the information we gain from our experiences. You don’t like or agree with what someone says? Great! That is the beauty of communication. We don’t have to believe whatever we see on the television screen or in the pages of a newspaper or magazine. Experience puts us past that. An equally important matter to take into consideration when exploring education