Quote of the Week...from Isaac Asimov

People think of education as something they can finish.            ---Isaac Asimov.

Isaac Asimov (1920-92), author of the science fiction Foundation, Empire, and Robot series, is one of the most beloved science fiction writers of the twentieth century.  Besides these fictional works and others, he wrote many books on general science, math, and other topics, with a targeted audience of adults.  Asimov was one of the early proponents of life-long learning and did not believe that one's education ends upon graduation from school, crystallized by the above quote.  And while I agree with this notion wholeheartedly, I still feel a bit out of place whenever I'm in public and begin to practice writing out sentences in Chinese or Russian, or start to work on math problems in...say, linear algebra or probability.  That's because once you're out of school, you can nowadays still be "allowed" to be learning things...only they need to have some sort of "application" in your life that you can justify your learning to others, as if there were really any need for an excuse...

But aside from the cognitive reverie that I find myself in from time to time, along with quirky interests like foreign languages or treating math problems as fun puzzles to solve, I also keep up with events around me and their historical foundations and causes.  After all, I am a voting participant in this representative form of society called a republic and to fully be able to understand the important issues of our time and how they affect me. my family, and my country, I need to be continually studying and learning.  I do also read a lot as well as engage in daily practice expressing my thoughts on this blog...that's all part of lifelong learning.  And I also firmly believe that keeping myself informed and interested in the news helps to protect me from demagogic politicians and media figures who play upon people's fears and prejudices in order to build up support.  But beyond this, I have a natural curiosity about things and like to learn...applications or not.  I consider it all as simply being a necessary, basic element of life...