Why do people tune out the “uneducated”?

I have always struggled with this practice in society. Let me explain why. Countless people dismiss the words or thoughts or interpretations of someone if they deem that person to be “uneducated”. Being uneducated is some magical term you can apply to someone to make whatever fact or opinion they might be espousing as somehow less or unworthy. Only those “educated” should be listened to. And what do we generally think makes someone “educated”? Formal schooling, especially college. At least that is what those who attended college would have you believe. Their completion of a college degree now makes them “educated”. And that is because college turns out mostly like-minded thinkers. Just like entering the Army. Generally speaking, and because that is often the intention, the Army seeks to break you down and build you up the way they want you. This makes you the most useful to them. Could the same thing be happening in college? What exactly makes a person “educated”?

Getting a bachelor’s degree in something is the lowest form of competency in a particular topic. And it’s supposed to be. A person is introduced to an enormous topic (say biology) and is taught the fundamentals. The basics. And to do that, most of it is just memorizing things. It’s like learning a language. You need to learn the letters, words, basic grammar and rules first before you can really begin communicating. Sure, you can get by to some degree but a person is by no means “fluent” in that language yet say nothing for really knowing what they are saying to another. They still have a long way to go. And that is perfectly ok. Expected. You aren’t educated in that language; you just know a few things. This is most people with a bachelor’s degree. A good start.

Now imagine you grow up in a nomadic native American tribe, living off the land. You have never been to college or heard formal biological textbooks presented to you. If we took our B.S. biology student and our tribal friend (at the same age) and listened to both of them, who would be more educated? The one who has little to no life experience with biology but has a lot of book facts or someone who has lived immersed in biology for their whole life? If we were in a survival situation, who would you listen to more? Who is more “educated”?

Much of your bachelor’s degree was also spent dabbling in other subjects, where again you just got a small snippet of the immense potential of those topics. Does that make you educated then, having a small exposure to a number of different topics? If you look at any college’s marketing strategy, they strongly suggest the intentional forcing of students to take a myriad of classes on different subjects makes them more “well-rounded”. Yes, your major is biology but you have to take English classes, math classes, electives like art or philosophy or some other social science class, and many other undergraduate requirements in order to graduate. If being well-rounded is a requirement for being educated, then someone who read and memorized an encyclopedia from A-Z, would be considered “educated” as well? Yes?

I know this is a bit uncomfortable to discuss because the truth lies in something very simple. Most people consider themselves “educated”, at least here in the U.S. Thus, anyone who has accomplished what they have, especially in a similar manner or pipeline, would also be considered “educated” to them. Or, at the least, worth listening to. Those who have not achieved whatever subjective level they have (say they only went to high school) would be considered “less educated”. This lower tier makes whatever fact or opinion they might have to be viewed as “less” than the person hearing it. In that same vein, if someone with a similar background agrees with you or has come to the same conclusions as you, you see them as “educated”. Disagree if you want but look at the patterns out there. A person’s view of someone being “educated” usually has everything to do with them agreeing on certain points of view or ideology.

I challenge you to break free from that type of thinking, even if you don’t feel it applies to you. It is time we expand our minds and listen to those you might feel are “uneducated”. I can already feel the pushback from many of you. Why would I listen to someone I deem “uneducated”? Well, “education” is not always correlated with intelligence. Intelligence is the innate ability to understand. Education is the process of acquiring that understanding. Neither guarantees a person actually understands. How do you test if someone understands? You don’t make them recite it; you make them apply it. And college rarely does that. You know what does? Real life. Just like our native American friend, they have done nothing but apply their life-long learned knowledge because if they get it wrong, they or others might die. Nobody dies if they fail a test in college.

In a very long way, I am trying to get you to see that the “educated” person is the one who applies things. Continuously. Where their success or health or well-being are conditional upon their ability to assess and properly respond to the situation. They are or lived it, not just read about it in a book. They are the ones confronted with the reality of their situation daily. The ones in the trenches. Their knowledge is earned, not bought. If you are struggling with drug addiction, who is more “educated” on your experience, the book smart sponsor or the former drug addict that got free? The best teachers and professors are not always the brilliant minds where everything comes easy rather, they are the B student who worked hard and spent every moment grinding and got to their position through sheer will. They know and relate to the majority of the students better because they were that student. More educated.

Look, I get it. People will always praise brilliant minds. And those minds are impressive. I was around them. They sure know their stuff. And for most, it came easy to them. As such, they usually didn’t have to get in and grind on the material and really chew on it to understand it. Digest it. They didn’t have to work to educate themselves. It came naturally. But there is something to say for those who didn’t just learn through formal schooling but organically, by their own hands and wits. Life smart. It was more visceral. A real “education” that forced them to understand something. These people are “educated” too. Best we start listening to what they have to say because that knowledge or understanding was earned and worthy of our attention too. Agreed?