Turning Education Into Knowledge

By Fatma Bujsaim (@Fatma_Bujsaim)

At some point in life, we have been programmed to believe/understand that everything we need to learn and know is either in the textbook or on the white/black board in the classroom. We went to school everyday at 8 am and attended our classes, at around 2pm we went back home, did our homework and that is that. After finishing our homework, we played, we had fun, we shopped, and we hung out with friends; and we avoided anything that would remind of us of school.
When we start university, and the first two semesters go by, we realize that the books and the board are not really enough in the process of learning. There is more to university than just doing projects, homework, and getting A’s in finals and midterms.
Wanting to learn could mean two things; either we want an education, or we want knowledge. But it could also mean that we want both. There is a very thin line that separates education from knowledge. In the Oxford Dictionary, Education is defined as “the process of teaching and learning (giving and receiving) systematic instructions”. So basically we are being told what to do and we just do it.
The problem with having an education alone is that we might forget it. It might slip away because it is just a set of instructions and guidelines. Education alone would not be able to survive and this is where knowledge comes in; it is defined as “facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education”.
So in other words, applying our education in experience turns it into knowledge. We do not only become aware of the information we gained in our education, but also become familiar with it and make it part of who we are, part of our experience.
The ways of gaining experience differs from one person to another. Some of us may volunteer in different events and conferences in their fields of interest; others may establish simple yet effective initiatives in order to practice and apply what they learned from their education.
We not only turn our education into knowledge by doing so but also get to learn new things while we are doing what we are doing. We meet new faces that teach us things from their own experience and enlighten us. We find support in other people and find ways of developing our future plans; one thing leads to another.
Some of us do not like any of the things mentioned above but we end up finding a way of creating our own experience, our own way of turning our education into a lifelong serving knowledge, and that might include traveling and exploring or conducting research.
So whether you are a freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, or even an alumni, it is never too late to realize that what we learn from the classroom is not enough; there is more to life than what books teach us.
This, my friends, is what I found out while I’m on campus; I wonder if that’s going to change after graduation.

Here We Start – Interview – Just Another Undergrad – Living Through The Eyes of Art – Microscopic Me
Scenes From Life – Society of Tomorrow – To The Point – Words, Observations, and Ramblings