Intelligence & Conventional Education

  

 

 

I wanted to share something that I thought about a few weeks ago, related to intelligence and conventional education. This is something that often crosses my mind, even when I was a child. Back then I remember meeting people who had bachelor's, masters's or doctorate degrees and like many of us I was made to believe that these are the people in our society who are smart, because they are educated. I had a problem with this though, because these people sometimes seemed to lack something very fundamental and to me they did not necessarily meet the definition of "smart", or perhaps conscious would be a better word. More importantly I soon noticed that the accumulation of "school knowledge" had nothing to do with being wise or mature, and aware of the effects of your actions in this world.  

Something that I've witnessed people do a lot in the last months related to covid and this whole situation, is bash people who dare to question these scientific and medical issues without possessing a degree in the field. To me this is like saying don't voice your opinion about human rights if you haven't studied social politics. It makes me  sad to see how so many people have completely lost touch with their intuition and inner guidance that they judge others who are in fact listening and tuning into that inner knowing.

I do not believe people need to possess a bachelors or masters degree in order to process and question things intellectually. This is just one of the many conditionings we have all grown up with. Another thing about conventional education is that is also gives us an identity which is sometimes hard to shake off afterwards. We might feel the pressure to fit in and think like the rest, because otherwise we might lose the respect or friendship of our schoolmates or collegues. Then again, if you've always "gone against the current" and done your own thing, you will not feel the pressure as much because well, you never really cared what others thought of you and your choices anyway. That is why I truly feel conventional education can sometimes cause us to live and act from inside a "box" because we are taught to think and act a certain way, and not encouraged to go outside of that box. And while conventional education can give you a great (and needed) skillset for certain professions and to navigate through life, it does NOT always equal intelligence or wisdom.

There are just as many people who possess a masters degree and have still reached no emotional or mental maturity as there are people without even a bachelors degree who move through life with incredible wisdom and a high level of consciousness.  

I truly believe that conventional education is a very insufficient measure of intelligence and that it's just one of the many ways that we are made to fit in one box and one box only. Not to mention how in some countries the education system is designed to keep people in debt because of massive tuition fees. But that is a whole other subject.  

If we don't behave in a way that takes other people, our planet, and other living things into consideration, we might as well have an IQ of a toothbrush in my opinion. Don't let your degree make you complacent and forget there are many things you don't learn with conventional education. We should always keep questioning things and keep our minds open for new point of views and information. 

Before someone thinks I don't believe in education, I'll say that that is not at all the point of this post. As I said, education has tremendous potential when it's done right but I believe we still have a long way to go when it comes to what we should actually teach in schools in order to create more conscious human beings. But hopefully we're getting there.. 

Finally, let us never judge people based on their external merits. You have no idea what kind of wisdom lies inside all of us when we really start listening. And that wisdom is not dependent on how many books we've read or exams we've taken.