Many students at universities claim to be “educated” because they think that their countries’ education is superior to many others. But what does it really mean to be educated? Is it about making money? Having a lot of knowledge? Or getting a 4.0 GPA? I think it goes further than that. In my opinion, an educated person is someone ethical who has the ability to think critically and not only seeks to transform and make his or her own life better but also other people’s lives. In addition, I believe that an educated person participates in his or her community and has the desire to use knowledge to question his or her environment. Also, it involves seeking to learn about different fields and explore varied viewpoints. Therefore, I can’t agree with the idea that being educated has to be directly related to the ability to make money and be successful.

People commonly think that those who are “educated” are the ones who have the best jobs or make a lot of money, which is because human beings usually relate education to success, but those are completely independent concepts. For example, I consider a lot of my instructors as educated people; however, they are not wealthy. On the other hand, there are many wealthy individuals leading companies, and they do not know anything about their community, art, or natural environment, but they are successful.

Education is not only knowledge, although commonly confused as such. There is a clear difference between these two concepts. On one side, a knowledgeable person learns about a specific topic or subject, such as math, science, or history. On the other hand, an educated person is able to think by himself or herself and has an understanding of various things, such as political conflicts, the natural environment, art, etc.

A big part of getting good grades depends on the ability to do tedious assignments, study for quizzes, and prepare for final exams. Still, the truth is that education cannot be measured by the grade you get on a test or an assignment. Unfortunately, many teachers seem to view classrooms as workplaces where students are expected to do a lot of work for an achievement, rather than studying for the sake of actually learning. Therefore, grades reflect the effort that students put into their classes, not how educated they are. This means that getting a good grade on a test sometimes only shows that some people are good test takers and not that they are actually educated. As an example, Einstein did not get the best grades at university. However, he was an educated person because of his love of learning and his curiosity. Also, his thoughts had a significant influence on modern scientists, and their discoveries are of great importance for life and science.

Furthermore, memorizing a complete list of names, books, or author’s ideas is a wrong way to judge if someone is educated or not. Because a person who is only well informed cannot think by himself or herself since he or she is just repeating what others have said. I could get “good” grades for memorizing a book or a paragraph and having a quiz on it, but it does not show anything about how educated I am. For instance, if a student memorizes an ethical theory, he would not be able to apply that theory on a real situation because he has not figured out a relationship between the theory and real-life since he just memorized the author’s claim. Some students can remember the school content all of the time. Still, whenever they face a real-life situation, they cannot solve it practically since this involves experience and critical thinking. So, education is not only about memorizing concepts, but also understanding and analyzing situations based on those concepts.


When I was in high school, the principal gave an award to the three most outstanding students over 151 candidates. Everyone thought that he would provide the certificate to the ones who got the best grades, but instead, the principal gave the awards to the ones he considered deserved recognition. In this case, the criteria used to select the students included service to others, community involvement, a positive attitude, and academic performance. This means that the school did not measure education by merely school grades, but by the positive contribution made to other people. For this reason, I think educational institutions should see students as a whole person and not just a number.


In summary, being educated is not about having wealth, knowledge, or graduating with honors in school. However, I am not saying that if someone achieves that he or she is not educated. I am just saying that if getting a higher degree is someone’s most significant achievement, he is not truly educated; since being educated involves creating an impact and make a difference in people’s lives. Also, it means being able to think by yourself, instead of taking ideas from someone else. As I mentioned before, every time we challenge ourselves to analyze what we have learned and try to learn something completely different from what we already know, we are getting closer to being educated, as it is a continuous process.