Who is an educated parson?

We are now ready to answer the question "Who is an educated person?"

An educated person is one who has undergone a process of learning that results in enhanced mental capability to function effectively in familiar and novel situations in personal and intellectual life. In order to function effectively in such situations, one needs to acquire:

1. general information (knowledge),

2. general thinking abilities involved in knowledge building and knowledge critiquing,

3. general language abilities needed for clear, precise, and effective communication for epistemic purposes,

4. the capability for independent learning with respect to (a)-(c), including the capability to engage in rational modes of inquiry, and, above all,

5. the mind set that facilitates (a)-(d).

These are the ingredients of "educatedness". If we accept this characterization, it follows that educational programs should be so designed as to maximize the probability of learners achieving these goals in the educational setting.

Whom, then, do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day; and those who can judge situations appropriately as they arise and rarely miss the suitable course of action. Next, those who are honorable in their dealings with all men, bearing easily what is unpleasant or offensive in others, and being as reasonable with their associates as is humanly possible. Furthermore, those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not unduly overcome by their misfortunes, bearing up under them bravely and in a manner worthy of our common nature.

Most important of all, those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves, but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober-minded men, rejoicing no more in the good things that have come to them through chance than in those which through their own nature and intelligence are theirs since birth. Those who have a character which is in accord, not with one of these things, but with all of them these are educated--possessed of all the virtues.

Educated persons are those who can choose wisely and courageously under any circumstances. If they have the ability to choose between wisdom and foolishness, between good and bad, between virtuousness and vulgarities, regardless of the academic degrees they have, then they are educated. To conclude educated ate those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves, but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober-minded men, rejoicing no more in the good things that have come to them through chance than in those which through their own nature and intelligence are theirs since birth.