Information Overload

Before the printing press was invented, books were very scarce. An education was a hard thing to come by, and even possessing one book was something to be extremely proud of. Few people in the world owned any, and even fewer had actual libraries. These were the days when an education was a thing to be coveted; days when what people knew were passed down from what their families and friends told them. Even after the invention of the printing press, books were somewhat scarce. In Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, he speaks of borrowing his friend's books with the utmost respect and even fear of them (he really didn't want to hurt them in any way). A book was a treasure, and the knowledge contained in them was a privilege to possess. Flash forward to today. Books can be bought for pennies at thrift stores or even found in the trash. A book is so commonplace that the regard that people once had for them has diminished to such a degree that once one has been read, its either thrown away or given away. With the advent of the Internet, information has taken another giant leap forward. Anything one would ever want to know is right before their fingertips. Just push a key and there it is! Then why are we seeing a decline in the education of people in today's society? Why are colleges pushing young adults faster and faster through their courses? I believe that a large part is because we have forgotten the sweetness of knowledge. We have taken for granted that for most of history, most people didn't know anything of literature, poetry, or many of the other things that education offers. We have become "Informationally Obese" if you will. Cramming twitters down our brains and wondering what Johnny ate for dinner last night. We have forgotten the fragrance that emanates from a truly educated person. An old Jewish tradition when a child was sent to school, was that when the first book was given to the student, it would be strewed with nuts and fruits to symbolize the sweetness of knowledge, and to encourage the child to savour an education. I would like to end this post with a quote from Desmond Bagley, "If a man is a fool, you don't train him out of being a fool by sending him to a university, you merely turn him into a trained fool, ten times more dangerous."