Are You Learning or Just Being Educated?

We often use learning and education as synonymous, interchangeable terms. They are nothing of the sort. We all know plenty of people who are well-educated yet could really use some learning! Education happens when you increase your knowledge. Learning happens when you understand how to use that knowledge to its full and intended potential, when you can wield that knowledge effectively.

Education is about information. It is more passive. It is something that happens to you.

Learning is about discernment, not just knowing the right things but also doing them. It is active and requires engagement. While we may not learn without also being educated, we can be educated without actually learning.

Think of knowledge as a tool. A tool provides leverage and, when applied properly, can add effectiveness and efficiency to the task at hand. But if misused, even a wonderful tool is worthless at best and likely even harmful. A chainsaw might be an effective tool, but in the hands of an eight-year-old without the skill and discernment to wield it properly, it is nothing but an accident waiting to happen.

Having the right tools – the information – is an important step, but we also need to understand how that knowledge is best utilized. The tools are not helpful if we lack the skills to employ them.

We must go beyond simple education and push ourselves to actually learn. Neither happens without effort, but too often we do not go any further than the first step. To education we must apply action and application. We must add wisdom and discernment and experience. Only then do we truly learn.

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