Thank you, Growing Leaders, for introducing this concept to me. Time for BRAIN DUMP.
There are two aspects of knowledge that the Greeks clearly stated through their language.
One piece of knowledge is the root gnosco, which is informational. Agnostic, diagnosis, etc. It’s in words you use every day. You take in factual information. The easy example is learning about a career, such as working on a farm. You research what farmers do for a living; where they go, what they need, how much time they need.
The other root (Oita or a different spelling…that’s the pronunciation) is the EXPERIENCE part. You can only learn so much about something until you experience it. You will never know the true experience of working on a farm for two years as a teenager unless you have actually done it.
I think the challenge in life is to balance these two aspects. Right now, gnosco is extremely plentiful and actually prevents us from getting out into the real world to learn. Information is plentiful through technology. It leads to information overload because we can learn so much though Gnosco and less through Oita.
I think Oita should be a little bit higher than Gnosco. We need more of it. We need to find applications for what we learn all the time, or we become blind to the importance of what we are learning. Education seems to make us retain more knowledge than apply. If we know what we want to do by high school, why are we learning subjects that we feel are pointless to where we are headed in the future?
I would rather have more life skills learned over subject specific skills. Skills that I use every day - no matter what career I choose to pursue - are the skills that MATTER. I respect every profession. Aren’t there skills we should all possess well? Teamwork, communication, organization, time management, etc? You get most of those through different EXPERIENCES. If you have a wonderful idea, but can’t communicate it well, how can you be successful? If you can’t cooperate with other people, how do things get done? If you’re struggling emotionally, how can you focus and remain optimistic despite your predicament? We educate, but I want to create better people. People with great people skills. Optimism, teamwork, honesty, enthusiasm, emotionally healthy, focused, determined, etc. All the stuff you should be consistent with.
I know I’m rambling, but am I talking nonsense? It is strange that students can see and know what’s wrong with education, yet we can’t fix much about it.
What do you think about Oita and Gnosco? How do you balance them?
