the persistence of old myths
I spent a bit of time this weekend just ending undertaking a bit of tidying of my desk at home. It is a Sisyphean task; it’s always a matter of tidy; find something more; tidy some more; find yet more, never ending.
I think I’m just in one of those Sisyphean phases at the moment, feeling that I’m never quite getting the stone to the top of the mountain. But I’m confident as well that it’s just a phase, something that will pass.
But one of the things I found, tucked away in a folder that itself was tucked away in a desk, was an old slightly faded list of possible topics for future blog posts. Some have been crossed out, but more remain.
The one that caught my eye was, ‘training closed, education open.’ It took a few moments but then I remembered what I’d intended by that. I was talking to someone, I can’t remember who, about the difference between training and education. This ties into that larger topic of the purpose of education.
One can take the view that training is a closed process: we are trained for particular tasks; we undertake training to learn or hone or refine a particular skill. But training has an end point that depends on the task under consideration. So I can go on a training course to learn Excel; I can undertake training for a marathon or a triathlon; I can (and have) undertake training to become a better line manager.
On the other hand, one can take the view that education is an open process. There is not a specific goal, in the way there is for training. Yes, it might be that as part of the education process, I become a better mathematician, but this is a much more open, a much broader end goal to the process.
Perhaps it’s just that I want there to be a significant difference between training and education. I do see a difference, but looking back, I’m not sure my thoughts are sufficient clear for me to persuade you of the difference.
I can look at the other big things in my days as well, where I spend my time. Aikido involves a lot of training. Particular techniques. Particularly break falls. But there is education there as well, which technique for instance in which particular circumstance, and how to understand how bodies move.
For writing, there is training in grammar and structure, but the education I think of a writer is a broader, more general process, that comes from reading and putting down words, putting down words, putting down words.
We are almost in November, and so it’s time now to put down some words and continue the education of this writer. I’ll keep working through this list over time, and thinking more about this distinction that I see between training and education.
multijimbo 