What does it mean to be educated?

A Greek philosopher named Epictetus once said "Only the educated are free". But what does it mean to be truly educated? Does being educated simply mean that a person has acquired a vast amount of textbook knowledge or is it something greater?

We are all born with a veil called innocence that shields us from the true reality that we are surrounded by. This innocence causes us to be in our “natural default setting”(Wallace), a setting in which we are innocent of the pain and misery of the world around us and we simply focus on our desires. The “history teacher”(Collins) thinks that innocence is the true meaning of educated. He doesn’t understand that “protecting..innocence”(Collins) will only result in people never being able to change their “default setting”(Wallace), preventing them from feeling empathy and causing them to “torment the weak and smart”(Collins). The world isn’t full of “flower beds and white picket fences” which is why it is essential for people to “adjust their default setting” and see the weeds in the flowerbeds and the cracks on the white picket fence.

When people are no longer limited by the constraints of “arrogance”(Wallace) and self-centeredness, then they can become truly free.

To be truly educated is when a person no longer posses the innocence that prevents them seeing past the white picket fences and from feeling empathy for the world around them.