Education vs. Wisdom

Published: June 6, 2013

Now that I’m on the second half of life’s journey, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll take wisdom over education any day. With wisdom, you can put education to good use. Education without wisdom is a sad state of affairs.

The wise learn to learn. The educated are taught to learn. Have you ever been in the room with an educated person that lacked all common sense? Such folks are so caught up in their education that they overthink the simplest tasks. Back in the day, we called them educated fools.

Education is Necessary

Don’t get me wrong, I believe education is necessary, but before we start educating people, we should instill a few basics. Children, before they can attend school must learn the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. They start to develop a moral compass. Book learning and education added to that moral compass help to make a wise and educated person.

Wisdom is a type of hands-on informal learning. Wise people learn to read people and situations while educated people learn to read books. I believe the best is a combination of wisdom and education but if I had to choose only one, wisdom would win.

Wisdom and Intuition

Wisdom, in my opinion, goes hand in hand with intuition. Wise people learn to listen to their gut. They don’t always agree with or follow the path of conventional wisdom. Following the inner directive isn’t something that’s encouraged in our society. We’re told to follow the masses. After all, advertisers spend lots of money telling us how we should think, feel, smell, look, etc.

Start Small

Take one area in your life where you often comment, “This just doesn’t make sense.” Take that one issue and meditate on it. This doesn't mean rolling the negative around in your head over and over. Just bring it to your mind and quiet yourself. Allow your inner voice to provide alternative suggestions to that nonsensical situation. If you allow yourself to get quiet for long enough, your inner voice will solve the problem for you, but most of us don’t sit still for that long.

If you can't get quiet for that long, go for a long walk. If you live in a noisy area, take your music along with you. Play something soothing and calming. The further into your walk you go, the more relaxed your thinking becomes. Eventually, without realizing it, ideas will start popping into your head. Just go with the flow. The more you do it, the easier it will become to hear your inner voice.

"For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it." Ecclesiastes 7:12 [King James Bible]

This is one of several posts that came from a blog that I chose to discontinue. Instead of letting all of the content go into oblivion, I decided to capture it here.

About the Author: I am Felicia A. Williams, a wife, mom, grandma, writer and eternal student.

Last Modified: 29 November 2020