While what you say is valid, and it is possible to have an understanding of a subject without formal education, and it is also possible to be educated and able to use technical jargon without having a true understanding of the subject, both cases tend to be the exceptions rather than the rules. On the whole, formal education in a subject and degree of understanding of that subject tend to be highly correlated.
I'm certainly not anti-education. I just feel that too much emphasis is placed on memorization and regurgitation of definitions. Too little emphasis is placed on a holistic understanding of subjects. (holistic having no association to holistic medicine....)
As another example:
Q: A rise in the sodium level of the blood will cause an increase in the production of Aldosterone. T or F?
You could have a great understanding of the action and effects aldosterone has in the body. You could know that it is secreted in response to blood sodium levels, you could know that aldosterone affects sodium reabsorption in the distal tubules of the kidneys. You could know and understand that by affecting the reabsorption of sodium, it affects the retention of water by the body.
You could see the entire "big picture," and be able to relay the information in layman's terms to the general public and make THEM understand how it works.
When you eat more salt, the body responds by changing its aldosterone secretion which forces the kidneys to hold on to more sodium. This causes the body to retain more water, which then causes a rise in blood pressure.
You could understand how this affects baroreceptors and how that affects the function of the heart. You could understand bernoulli's principle and how the increase in blood volume from the increased water retention from the increased sodium retention causes a rise in pressure as the blood leaves the heart through the Aortic Valve.
You could even be able to perform the equation of continuity to know exactly how much the pressure is increased.....
You could see the entire big picture.......AND get that question wrong.
If you would have spent too much time LEARNING how aldosterone effects the body and not enough time learning whether aldosterone production is INCREASED or DECREASED, you would get a big fat 0 on that question.
Someone that knows the "game" could have spent 10 seconds memorizing that: decreased blood sodium = increased aldosterone
I'm definitely NOT anti-education. I just feel that the education system could be much more effective if it approached learning differently.
