The Importance Of Informal Education

Even though a well-educated person is thought of as one who has extensive college education and attend the finest schools, a well-educated person can also be one who is educated with hands-on experience without a college degree.

When referring to a person as well-educated it usually has to do more with formal education than informal education. My belief is that when someone is describing a person as well-educated he or she needs to consider both the formal and informal types of education. Formal education is very important especially in the early years when there has been no experience. Basic reading, writing, and math are learned in primary school and provide structure. Informal education provides learning on a different level though. Psychologist, David

According to Kolb, “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combinations of grasping and transforming experience” (Kolb, 2009). There have been studies that demonstrate learning hands on assists in retaining the information. One of those studies was done by Purdue University in 2009 in an Article titled “Hands-On Learning vs. Lecturing” by Katie Ash. This study discusses what researchers found when students who actually did hands on work understood on a deeper level than the students who had lecture-based lessons (Ash, 2009).

Alfie Kohn asks the question in his article, “Does the phrase well-educated refer to a quality of the schooling you received or to something about you. Does it denote what you were taught or what you learned (and remember)” (Kohn, 2003)? When speaking of formal education, I agree that I retain less with lectures and bookwork. In 1996, I took an English class and passed with a C. Now, nineteen years later, I am auditing that same English class because I cannot remember anything I learned. I had no reason to use