Education Is Life!

Education is life! Education is not just a preparation for life, but it is life. That is what Eduard Lindeman wrote in his book The Meaning of Adult Education* in 1926. Ninety-three years later, I would have to agree with him. Education and learning is a lifelong journey. If you are going to do something for life, shouldn’t it be more fun? Why is it that so many people avoid education? In his book, Lindeman discusses a number of important educational themes to include the problems of our education. Our problems are not new, Dewey and Lindeman addressed them at the beginning of the last century.

Natural vs Unnatural Education

Lindeman began by comparing traditional education with how he believed education should be — naturally applied. Many consider education to be a preparation for “real life” and that you do not need education once you enter real life. Traditional education is something that one has to endure, and it typically turns off individuals once they have completed it. They do not want to further participate in education once they leave school. Many believe it is only for the young and it is not necessary for adults. However, individuals learn throughout their entire lives. Individuals who stop learning will rapidly lose what they had once learned. For individuals to succeed, they need to continue learning.

Lindeman believed we have taken something which is natural and made it unnatural by sterilizing it. Life is not an isolated subject learned independently. Life is a mixture of many subjects, experienced at the same time. Education should be enjoyed and looked forward to. He believed we need to explore different methods for educating.

Lindeman believed education is more than skills development. Education is what gives meaning to life not just for the sake of knowledge. Lindeman added that education continues where vocational training stops. Additionally, he pointed out that adult education is linked to situations rather than subjects. Adults will learn when there is a problem to solve or an obstacle to negotiate. The focus of adult education is the learner’s experience. Learners develop by expanding on their experience. They gain experience by doing things and reflecting upon the processes, not through the rote memorization of subjects taught in silos. The curriculum must adjust to the student rather than the student adjust to the curriculum.

Intelligence and Its Role in Education

Lindeman saw intelligence as a filtering device that everyone has. “Intelligence is the ability to learn, the capacity to solve problems, to utilize knowledge in evolving, continuing accommodations to changing environments” (Lindeman, 1989, p. 17).

Each person uniquely gathers information and facts. They make meaning from them by drawing associations between these facts and pieces of information. They also relate these facts and information to their personal experiences. Intelligence filters information through a fact-finding lens. Individual experiences and values shape this lens. As a result, two individuals could distill a different set of facts from the same situation. Because each situation is different, the information and facts vary from one to the other.  The resulting matrix of facts from individual to the situation would be incomprehensible.

Intelligent people understand the hows and whys of what they want to do, They must build upon that through experimentation. Because each person understands a situation differently based on their background and experiences, it is important as educators to allow each individual the room to develop their intelligence. We must allow them to learn independently.

Concepts of Adult Education

In Lindeman’s essay of adult education, he pulled together five concepts, all interrelated. These concepts are power, self-expression, freedom, creativity, and appreciation. In isolation and in excess, these qualities are considered to be abnormal; however, in combination, they make up the individual. We learn and develop these qualities in combination rather than as individual units. In individual chapters, Lindeman described each quality, starting with the use of power.

Power

“Knowledge is power” ~ Sir Francis Bacon

Knowledge is power, or at least the ability to harness power. The tie between education and power has been with me since my short stay at the Air Force Academy where I read “Man’s flight through life is sustained by the power of his knowledge” by Austin ‘Dusty’ Miller, the quote on the Eagle and Fledgling statue.

Power is not only something that education can provide. Power can be useful or, in some cases, abused. Lindeman pointed out that many want to have power over nature and others. However, an excess of power can create an unbalance resulting in corruption and abuse of power.

For an individual to successfully wield power, they must work with nature rather than against natural forces. Possessing some power even in terms of self-discipline will help learners have the courage to attain other qualities.  You must have the power to break the bonds of conformity and standardization.

Self-Expression

Self-expression is the capability or power to be different. Self-expression is certainly a valued quality; however, society typically frowns upon self-expression and settles for conformity. Because individuals are so used to conformity or the status quo, they would have to reeducate themselves in order to exhibit self-expression.

Emphasizing the value of self-expression is important to society. A homogeneous society is boring. Self-expression helps to keep our society diverse in terms of ideas, and diversity in society helps spark creativity and self-expression. Each one of us has something to contribute to improving our community.

Adult education is about developing the idea of self-expression, harnessing the idea of individuality. Recreation and play should be encouraged, even in adults. Recreation may tap into pursuits which lead to happiness.

Lindeman also spoke about self-expression in politics and industry and comments that if we do not seize the opportunity to take action, we will tend to slip into inaction and becomes apathetic.

Freedom

While you may have the power to be self-expressive, you are still stuck if you do not have the freedom.

Lindeman pointed out that freedom is often misunderstood. Often people believe freedom is associated with free will or separation from the control of others. Lindeman continued to point out that it is impossible to separate from the larger whole.

There is nothing such as absolute freedom. Once again, we must learn to work with nature rather than against it. Each of us is free to create new ideas, as well as, reuse knowledge, ideas, and skills in the development of something original. Lindeman pointed out that we must figure out what we want, what holds us back and work to remove those obstacles.

We also become free when we realize what we are able to achieve rather than strive after the impossible. Goals can be challenging, but they must also be realistic. Again, he pointed out that we must pursue an education in a realistic setting rather than sterile disciplines.

Creativity

To do nothing, when we had the power, freedom, intelligence, and capability of self-expression is an opportunity missed. Lindeman pointed out that many of us are frustrated that we did not follow a dream and pursue our creative side. Because often we have failed to develop our creative side, we end up being boring and uncreative. We have contributed to the status quo.

It is possible to be creative in all of our endeavors. Whenever we have the opportunity to improve upon the bland and boring, we are focusing on creativity. We must be open to new ideas and endorse collaboration or else we submit to uncreative preconceived ideas. Life will be a much happier place if we look for opportunities to create rather than simply complete tasks with a preconceived solution.

Appreciate

If we have the ability to create, shouldn’t we also have the ability to appreciate creations? Lindeman seemed to mock the need for a prepackaged education to appreciate the arts. Do we need someone else to tell us what is good art? Instead, Lindeman suggested we should find out what learners first enjoy about the fine arts before trying to convince them of another’s opinion. We need to help people learn to be honest about their feelings. Some people do not believe their opinion is valuable until others first confirm it. They can not enjoy anything without first receiving affirmation.

What I have come to learn from Lindeman’s essay is that each person is unique. They have their own experiences, ideas, and skills. We should spend more time creating environments for them to explore and expand upon their ideas in realistic environments, rather than control ideas in an effort to develop conformity. Most great ideas fly in the face of sameness. Many people can draw a landscape, however, Monet, Rembrandt, and Picasso stand out because of their self-expression and creativity. Frank Lloyd Wright stands out because of his creativity. Edison was not satisfied with the status quo. Neither were Columbus and Armstrong. Dare to be different, dare to be creative. Add creativity to your routine work meetings, think differently, liven up the place.

Helping Adults Learn

Here some final thoughts from the book where Lindeman addressed concerns about becoming too specialized, the importance of building collective knowledge, and methods for helping adults learn.

Specialization

Lindeman seemed to express a concern about learners becoming too specialized. He explained how this has all came about. Lindeman explained the amount of knowledge has increased to the extent that to understand it requires that it be subdivided into specializations. Because of the amount of research needed, disciplines have been subdivided. As a result, individuals will know a lot about only a fraction of their entire field of knowledge. Because of specialization in education, higher education is now turning out specialists rather than well-rounded learners.

In terms of education, Lindeman recommended requiring broad orientation courses, minimize specialization in general education, and have undergraduates focus on liberal arts courses while allowing graduate students to specialize in a narrower field of study. The problem is that students are paying for something that they hope will be immediately practical, they are not thinking about becoming lifelong learners.

If we do not have general knowledge or awareness of a number of things, we will be constantly meeting with specialists. Can being too specialized negatively affect an organization such as Cooperative Extension Service?

Collective Knowledge

Lindeman began his discussion on collective knowledge with a relevant quote, “The problem is not how to produce great men, but how to produce great societies” ~ A.N. Whitehead (Lindeman, 1989, p. 92).

Lindeman pointed out that education is the adjustment to ever-changing internal and external factors to minimize the pain points. In most cases, learning occurs through dialogue with others. Education advances through communication.

Learners must be social because they have no choice. If they wish to expand their knowledge, they must interact with their social environment. Not all social environments are smooth sailing. There is a class system whether individuals accept it or not. At any moment, there is always someone in a better or worse status in regards to knowledge, economics, power, etc. Individuals regardless of class must cooperate to advance their position.

Rather than enter a discussion in a defensive mode, people can gain more through creative honest open educative cooperation. Either-or scenarios do not allow for creative negotiation. Groups develop when individuals agree with the ideas of others, and conflicts develop when individuals cannot agree.

Helping Adults Learn

Finally, Lindeman discussed methods for helping adults learn. He emphasized two key areas experiences and subjects. “Experience is, first of all, doing something; second, doing something that makes a difference; third, knowing what difference it makes” (Lindeman, 1989, p. 87).

Life is about living and gaining experience that in turn is educational. Adults gain knowledge through personal experience; they cannot acquire it through the experiences of others. The most memorable lessons are the ones personally experienced. Experience is more powerful the closer it relates to the individual. For example, lessons about finances will have more meaning when they are associated with personal finances than with obscure references to corporate finances in a remote city. Adult educators must personalize and localize learning for the adult learner.

We must remember that adults voluntarily enter into learning episodes. As adult educators, we need to focus on the methods we use to pass on knowledge. We should focus on situational-experiences.

We should not isolate knowledge into subjects. Subjects are the products of specialists. Life is not about subjects, life is a melting pot. A subject cannot stand in solitary; subjects integrate with countless other subjects. By focusing on subjects, students rapidly lose knowledge upon completion of the course. By tying knowledge to an individual’s experience, it will stay with them longer.

Overall, Lindeman has reinforced ideas I have had about learning. Although reading works written by Lindeman, Dewey, and Knowles have shaped and clarified my understanding about adult education, I realized long ago that knowledge is power, and to be successful and stay successful, you must continue to learn, adapt, and retool. It has been interesting that a book written in 1926 still resonates today.

Reference

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