7 Insightful and Timeless Quotations on the Importance of Knowledge and Education

All through history, great thinkers from all areas of society have spoken on the importance of having a good education, but recently the importance of a good education has been under attack. Critic’s claim it’s gotten too expensive and has very little value compared to its costs.

History as well as the current geopolitical circumstances proves that the long term cost of an uneducated society can be even more disastrous. With so many nations developing at a frantic rate, the need for a top notch education system can’t be overestimated. In order for us to remain competitive we need people with the knowledge, skills and discipline for the next century. Many developing nations already recognize that their most valued asset is their young. In some countries after a person graduates from high school, they’re required to either join the military or go to college, cost free. Both are part of a continuing education that helps impart critical thinking skills, discipline, and life skills. Some countries even recognized that education is a right and not a privilege as some claim.

After years of researching and collecting quotations for my books as well as motivation material for my sales force, I’ve compiled an extraordinary amount of wisdom on the importance of having a good education. The amount of wisdom that I’ve compiled is too large for an article of this size, so I’m only listing several of my favorites. Some of my other articles are about the profound wisdom passed down the ages, but without a solid education and good critical thinking skills they lose most of their insight.

If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance.

- Derek Bok 1930 -; American lawyer & educator.

A proper education is now mistakenly thought as a business rather than an investment. We don’t live in a bubble and a society with a sub-par education system will feel its effects for decades to come in all sectors of society. The fact is that in the long run, education pays out dividends far more valuable than money or wealth.

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

- John Adams 1735 – 1826; American Politician, 2nd President of the U.S., a founding father of the U.S., diplomat, & first Vice President of the U.S.

People from all nations, in all areas of society; instinctually know that education is essential, if people want to keep their freedoms. An uneducated population is susceptible to manipulation by the powers that be, who can use various techniques to influence one or thousands of people into action or inaction. (See my other article on communication)

Let’s trace the birth of an idea. It’s born as rampant radicalism, then it becomes progressivism, then liberalism, then it becomes moderate, conservative, outmoded, and gone.

- Adam Clayton Powell Jr. 1908 – 1972; American politician & pastor.

One of the facts of life is change and most change comes with the birth of new ideas. At first people are suspect of new ideas because it challenges the conventional thinking, interferes with their current beliefs, will require people to make changes that many have gotten used to, or interferes with the benefits that most people derive from the current system, even though the current system cause a tremendous amount of problems for the vast majority.

As more and more people get used to the idea and see the benefits, it moves along its life cycle. Until finally, due to enormous other changes occurring in the world, the idea is no longer feasible because it’s incompatible with the changed world. Eventually needing to be replaced with newer ideas.

It’s useful to take away 2 things in regards to this quote. One: Change is always needed and constant. Two: The life cycle of an idea as well as where that idea is in its life cycle. Communism for example would be on the outer edges of “Outmoded” just about to cross over into gone.

New ideas are always needed but they also need to be critically scrutinized as to their costs and benefits without regard to the challenges they provide to the current established ideas. Emotions need to be taken out of the equation. Done properly, idea’s like Communism would never have taken hold and rightly so, didn’t in most parts of the world. Due to constant change cause by flood of new ideas, we need people with proper knowledge and education to critically evaluate every aspect of these new ideas.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

- Confucius 551 BC – 479 BC; Chinese teacher, politician, & philosopher.

Nothing substitutes for experience. Knowledge and education are incomplete without experience. You can learn the concepts but to gain understanding, you have to put those concepts to practice or full use. This is why internships and apprenticeship programs are so essential.

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

- Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC; Greek philosopher, polymath, & one of the fathers of Western philosophy.

This quote has been butchered in recent times to “Those that can, do! Those that can’t, teach!” Nothing can be further from the truth. Why would someone that can’t do something, teach it? We need to honor our teachers and not degrade them. If you know a thing or two, spread the knowledge if you’re able.

The ignorant are always prejudiced and the prejudiced are always ignorant.

- Charles V. 1500 – 1558; Holy Roman Empire Emperor.

Ignorance and prejudice go hand in hand. Prejudice usually grows out of ignorance. Most of the time people are prejudiced because they don’t have full knowledge or understanding of the other person or idea. They haven’t taken the time to acquaint themselves with the other side. Once you fully understand another person or idea, only then can you fairly judge. One of the perks of a good education is realizing how limited your knowledge is, which is why education should be a right.

Sell (or give) a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, he eats for the rest of his life.

- (Possibly coined by Karl Marx. Often attributed to Chinese philosophers Lao Tzu 6th century BC; Chinese philosopher. (A.k.a. Laozi, circa 5th century BCE) and Confucius 551 BC – 479 BC; Chinese teacher, politician, & philosopher. Although sometimes attributed to Jesus Christ, this proverb does not exist in the Bible’s New Testament.

It is better to teach someone to self-sustain rather than sustain them indefinitely. This is one of the primary reasons for a good education system. A person with a good education will not only survive in the real world but depending on their level of education, can thrive. Thus creating opportunities, exemplifying creativity, and discovering new knowledge that benefits all of humanity.

Bonus

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

- Chinese Proverb

Sometimes, the only way to get good experience is to get in there and make your mistakes. Take your lumps. Failure isn’t failure but lessons toward success.

Automotive Service Manger Training Process

Cars require regular maintenance and repairs. A mechanic does the physical work on the vehicle, but the service manager ensures that the dealerships service department is well run and managed. Automotive service manger training requires years. The manager needs skills gleaned from work experience, education, vocational training, and certifications in the automotive field.Service managers are usually employed at a car dealership or a vehicle service operation. Budgeting is one of the chief responsibilities of the manager. They are charged with creating the operating budget, but also making sure the department stays within the budget parameters. They have to make sure costs remain within their projected expectations. They also have to set the goals in regards to profits. Quality assurance and the high ethical standards of the operation also fall under their purview. The manager is in charge of hiring and supervising employees, especially mechanics and technicians. It’s important that the manager make sure all employees are up to date in their training and applicable skills. This insures that customers are receiving the best service possible. They oversee everything that happens in the service department of a car dealership.Both the service manager and general manager strive for the highest CSI or the Customer Satisfaction Index. Good customer satisfaction is the hallmark of a service department. These skills are an essential part of a managers training.An ever-increasing number of people who are involved in an automotive service manger training process have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree from a college or university. Suggested concentrations are in computers, automotive technology, electronics, mathematics, and business. Training can be done at a technical college, community college, or through a certification program.There are a large number of academies and vocational schools that offer certifications in automotive service, many of which can be an asset to a service manager. Dealerships appreciate varying amounts of education, training, and experience when choosing a manager. Education and experience are equally important in a manager’s training and preparation.The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence offers several professional certifications that boost an applicant’s qualifications. A well-qualified manager should have these certifications. Many service managers already have ASE Service Consultant certification prior to beginning their automotive service manger training. Having such a certification shows a solid understanding of how to perform vehicle repair and maintenance.Technical knowledge is essential to the manager’s role in regards to quality assurance. They must know how the work is best performed and problems diagnosed, in order to be able to review and evaluate the work of technicians and mechanics. Ten to fifteen years of experience in the field of automotive technology and mechanics prior to becoming a service manager is an industry expectation.

Statistics Programming – Easing the Pain

Different sets of software are being developed everyday just to ease man with some of his technical works such as in the field of business. These programs are specially designed to make high speed calculations and analysis of the data and come up with a soft copy of information output that can be used instantaneously after the software processes it. Statistics is one of the most complicated clerical works of anyone who is studying or working in the field of economics, politics and even social matters. Statistics is deemed to be of importance because it gives a type of descriptive conclusion or interpretation that can be very precise depending upon the quality of data that has been gathered and the competence that is given to organize, interpret and represent that data. But even with the level of competence that a person has with regards to his statistical skills, there is still a probability that a miscalculation might be made and alter the holistic outcome of the statistics.

However, because of the rapid advancements of technology and the evolution of the functions that can be performed by the humble computer software developers has come up with a certain software program that can make ease any statistician of all their statistical tasks. The development of a program that is able to perform the task of organizing and interpreting statistical data was q revolutionary breakthrough when it comes to statistical analysis help. Statistics programming is defined as the systematic calculation of all the numerical data that has been downloaded into the system wherein it is organized basing upon the categories. These categories are classified upon the nature of the data that has been downloaded. After the process of organizing the data, it will be then interpreted numerically. This function of statistical programming helps to lessen the burden of work and also to maximize the output of a statistician.

Statistical program is composed of sets of languages. There are a total of 17 categories in a statistical program and these are the following;
• Analytica, ADMB
• Gretl, GAUSS
• Mathematica
• OxMetrics
• Quantum (Programming Language)
• Programming Language, SPSS, Symbolic Data Analysis, Sysquake, SAS (software and language), Speakeasy(Computation), SHAZAM (Software)
• World Programming System
• XLispStat

Each of these categories of Statistics Programs has their own unique sets of functions. Each one of it is capable of performing specific functions about statistics. The MATRIX LAB is one of the statistics programs that are widely used today. It is a program that is provided by a certain company that is said to be fully capable of solving ad coming up with solutions with regards to any mathematical or numerical problems that are fed into it. The MATLAB assignment helps not only statistics but also other aspects that majorly require the use of mathematical equations and solving. Because of these software programs, statisticians are given more time to pay attention to other details of the data and leave the organization and the interpretation of it to the statistics software.