Malcom X Experiment

After reading "Learning to Read" by Malcom X, I felt inspired to read even more and look deeper into what I read. It's truly amazing how he educated himself in a jail library.  His speech, handwriting, and language all improved significantly.  The assignment we were asked to do after reading this passage from his autobiography was to go to a random page in a dictionary, read it, and follow up on any words we don't know by consulting an encyclopedia.  Unfortunately, I'm dealing with painful shin splints and really didn't want to walk all the way to the library.  So I flipped to a random page in "Rereading America", the book assigned for the writing class, read and looked up a few words that I didn't know the meaning of.  The page that I happened to turn to mentioned Yosemite Canyon, a canyon I have heard of but don't know anything about.  I went online and looked up where it is and descriptions of the atmosphere, the water, and the geology of the area.  I learned something.  Not something I'm super interested in so I doubt I'll retain the facts I read for very long, but still I learned something new and all on my own during my own time.

There are definitely benefits to an unsystematic self-education.  For starters it's very open and you're free to look up and learn about what interests you and to continue to follow those interests.  And if there is a certain subject, like science, that you enjoy, you can spend more time deepening your knowledge of that subject.  Self-education also provides a stress free environment where you don't have to feel pressured to be perfect or get something done by a specific date.  And when you are less stressed, it is easier to retain new information and enjoy learning it.  However, an unsystematic education also has its drawbacks.  When learning new information and concepts it's good to be able to discuss it with others, especially people who are experts in the field.  That's why it's good to have a teacher and classmates, or other aspiring learners, to be educated with.  Also, school systems make sure that all students are well versed in all subjects so that they can be versatile and have skills that will help them in whatever truly interests them.  Both unsystematic and systematic education have their pros and cons, so maybe combining aspects from the two would better serve students today.