Quote of the Week...from Isaac Asimov

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.               ---Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a biochemistry professor much better known for his prolific output of books, most notably in the realm of science education and science fiction.  After Sputnik in 1957 put the Soviets ahead of us for a time in the space race, there was a panic in the U.S. regarding our state of science education...Asimov took a break then from his fiction writing and produced a series of very readable books spanning the fields of science and mathematics.  Early on in school, young Isaac was considered a prodigy and quickly jumped far ahead of his peers with his learning.  Which presents a bit of a problem with his above quote...

I used to be a pretty sharp little kid in elementary school, too...but definitely not at prodigy level like Asimov.  The teachers taught the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic with their specially-designed curricula, with the obvious knowledge that we children did not know beans about "self-education" and exactly what it was we were supposed to be learning.  I do agree with Asimov, though, that schools need to make self-education easier.  But to accomplish this, they need to first teach students what this means and how to do it.  And one other thing: if left to their own devices students...like folks in general...will focus on what interests them and ignore areas that don't.  It's up to schools to make sure that everyone learns about the broad range of subjects that as a society we deem important for them as later functioning adults. I don't buy the notion that little children just need for teachers to get out of their way and then they'll transform into budding Einsteins.  On the contrary, the teachers I had from elementary through high school were far too disengaged, leaving me usually drifting through the school years and feeling insignificant, if not invisible...

But education does not end with formal school and adults should know how to educate themselves, or at least know how to find the appropriate sources for the education they are seeking.  Still, you cannot self-educate if you're not motivated or curious.  And not everyone is a prodigy like Isaac Asimov was: I could have used more teacher-student interaction, not less...