Have you ever considered — in your academic life, with so many different sources of knowledge — whether what you are getting from these years of study is a real education or merely instruction? You should — our society frequently mistakes instruction for education in many important instances. I realize they’re similar ideas, but there’s an important distinction to make between mentally storing information and articulating ideas and principles.Confusing? That’s OK. I’m confused myself. I was led to believe from an early age that knowing a lot about something would make me an educated person. But I’ve begun to realize through the years that information and knowledge by themselves don’t mean much without values. We can only be sure we have learned something if we can put that knowledge and information to practice, then articulate ideas to respond creatively to situations we face every day.It’s not uncommon to see “educated” people — those who have a degree of some sort — acting as  though they have never really been taught how to respect other peoples’ ideas and attitudes. In the same way, I had the surprise to observe — especially in my country, Brazil — that many people who didn’t have the opportunity to study are well-educated in terms of dealing respectfully with others. Character and honesty are often found in the less privileged.Education means having a framework of principles cultivated in you — not by the gigabytes of information your brain could somehow absorb, but rather by learning how to intelligently act and respond to situations, events and problems in the best way possible.I’m not trying to separate two concepts that should work together. The more instruction you have, the better your chances are  to develop a strong sense of discernment about the world around you. If you are an educated person, instruction will open the way to a bright path ahead for anything you wish to achieve. For example, the instruction I receive as a musician allows me to perform on the instrument I play. But only the education given to me through the years will help me realize how important my role as a musician is and to build a meaningful life through music in our society.The importance of this matter is greatly amplified when we find ourselves in a university. The term “higher education” refers to a specific, advanced level of instruction in a field of knowledge that will allow a person to have a professional function in the world outside. We hope the same term will signify that whoever has been to a higher education institution will be able to offer a broader vision about the challenges the world of our time presents.Maybe you can try to remember when someone “instructed” you to thank people when someone gave or did something for you, or how you automatically say “excuse me” in various common situations during the day. These simple attitudes don’t come out of instruction. This is just the beginning. Real education goes a long way further.Your conscience is what will provide the keys to make educated choices when practicing the knowledge you received. And the keys that will open the right doors are those made by the priceless connection between the valuable information we get from all kinds of sources nowadays and the principles we value that makes us grow as humans and as a society, harnessed by a real education.
Marcelo Vieira is a jazz cello graduate student from Brazil. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_mvieira.
 
 
 
—-Contact Marcelo Vieira at [email protected]