More Practice Passages.
Education comes not from books but from practical experience.Mainstream education in most developed countries all over the world emphasises heavily on knowledge from books. The way assessments are structured and teachings are conducted nowadays requires books and textbooks to form a large proportion of a student's learning experience. For example, in universities in the United States, instructors often recommended students to acquire textbooks, either as optional reference texts or as an integral part of the course, and instructors often structure their course around the information presented in the text. Even in classes where textbooks are not required, reading passages and articles acquired from various books, magazines and journals often form an important part of the work that a student is required to do.
However, when we launch into a discussion about education, we cannot limit the definition of education only to what a student receives in classrooms. Education has a much broader meaning than that. For a person to be considered 'educated', other than knowledge from books, he ought also to learn how to live a life as a person, make morally sound decisions, be able to earn a living through acquiring skills that would be valuable, etc. Education is a multi-faceted entity, and certainly, classroom teaching in schools is only a part of it.
Thus, it would not be appropriate to say that education entails only the acquiring of knowledge from books. When we consider the other aspects of education, clearly books are not sufficient - it seems more likely that practical experience is also a major way for a person to be educated in those aspects. For example, in order for a person to know how to have a successful marriage, reading books on that topic is clearly not sufficient. He needs to talk to people who are experienced in that aspect, do some reflection on his own regarding his character and his behavioural patterns, speak to counsellors if necessary, and really live with his wife before he can be considered 'educated' in that aspect. If that person possesses extensive knowledge from books regarding how to have a successful marriage, but in real life he has had three divorces or he is not even married at all, generally he would not be considered to 'know' how to lead a happy married life.
However, it would be overly simplistic to claim that 'education comes not from books but from practical experience'. Although practical experience constitutes a major part of a person's education experience, knowledge from books cannot be discounted. As we have seen, knowledge from books is the main thing that educators in schools focus on, and in many instances, such knowledge provides the background for people to move on to acquire skills that will be important for them when they enter the job market. There is no way an electrical engineer can be trained if he does not know the basics of the physics of electricity; neither can a doctor in modern days be trained if he does not possess basic knowledge of biology and chemistry. Such knowledge can only come from books; although one might argue that what makes an engineer an engineer is still the practical experience he gathers while he is doing the job, the engineer cannot even start his practical training if he does not possess basic knowledge from the books.
To conclude, in order for a person to be considered 'educated', he has to acquire both knowledge from books and practical experience. Education does not only consist of one or the other. In some cases, a person needs to possess basic knowledge from books before he can undergo further training to become a professional. However, he cannot only rely on books for his education either; practical experience is extremely important to provide aspects of education that books can never offer. In the example of the married man, there is no way he will know how to lead a happy married life just from books; for the engineer, he can never be considered an actual engineer until he has done the job and knows exactly what is expected of him.
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