Author’s Note: this is the second column in a mini-series on education. 

Last week I said that the most fundamental calling of humanity is to pursue and achieve understanding—not to pass tests or succeed or be “great”, but to achieve understanding.

Studies show that most people don’t continue learning after college, and I think the reason is because they have been taught to try to be intelligent but not trained to pursue understanding. 

Understanding is different from intelligence or IQ. It isn’t something that can be measured with an exam, scored on a scale, or put on display and bragged about, but it is very clear who has it, and who doesn’t. 

It’s the art of skillful living.

 Without understanding, it’s impossible to live well. Instead of seeing and acting on reality, you’ll base your actions on someone or something else.

If we look at life as a long series of decisions, then the most valuable asset is understanding, a powerful perception into the way things are so that decisions can be made to actually benefit all involved. 

However, while I’m not picking any bones at the modern education system, we do need to realize this is a conversation our great grandparents were much better at having than we are. 

This is a conversation asking us to redefine our understanding (see there that word is again!) of education and how we attain it.

First, education is not amassing a bunch of facts, dates, and figures, like accumulating gold bullion in your safe. I think this is the model presented most often, which is why most people don’t read after college. What’s the point?

Education is not something that you get, it’s something that gets you. 

It is the process of grinding the lenses of your eyes down to the shape they need to be in order to see the world the right way, to really perceive it, while at the same time equipping your mind with categories for identifying what exactly it is your eyes see. 

In a word, the heart of education is perspective. 

Let’s take, for example, campers, since I’m on my family vacation right now, currently in our camper. 

If you want to learn about RVs, you start by researching them. Slowly your brain will develop categories for thinking and measuring differences. You’ll learn about broad topics of construction, design, and branding, and you’ll work your way to specifics of the gray tank capacity, the trailer suspension and axle ratings, and the wind-sensing awning. 

We learn by uncovering what is already there, shaping our minds to see patterns and categories. 

Once we have those categories, then the real thinking begins. Then you sit back, close your eyes, and imagine which one you want, what you value most. 

Your imagination does the heavy lifting as you take all those categories like Lego blocks and piece them together, testing them to see if they fit well. 

Making connections is the raw process of thinking, and that is why most people skip this step and just ask someone else to do it for them. Which RV should I get?, they say. Only you can answer.

Same goes for every other topic, including the deepest questions in life.

In summary, true intelligence, to me, is actually a quotient of the power of imagination and focus, combined with the skill of connecting and finding patterns, supplied with the raw materials of categories for thinking.

If you have all three of those, and you seek them as a priority in your life, then, I think, that’s what makes you an educated person.

More on this later.