The Marks of an Educated Man

by Alan Simpson


Actually, Alan Simpson's article "the marks of an educated man" for me is difficult to understand, and because I was not very know about it, my reflection for this article might disgress form the subject or maybe luckly strake to the point....Anyway, I like the line in this article:"an educated man ought to know a little about everything and a lot about something" it was well said, isn't it??!! I saw many people that they get interested to many things but they didn't stay longer at any of it, hence they seems know everything but the truth is when you go deeper the topic they don't know anything. Or you might see this kind of person that he is quite expert in one field, he can talks a lot in this field but once you change the topic and talk about anything except the field he experted, he become idiot and mute. I think that line means there are so many things and knowledge in the world that man can't know them all, he must choose one to study, to concentrate and to be prefessional, at the same time he ought to know little about everything, it was like have common sense in order to integrate life and knowledge.

Why should man have to be educated, because they have to distinguish good from bad, against those imposter and protect their property. But an educated man can't be measured only by his knowledge since in the world there is not definitely only right and bad, black and white, yet there is also vague zone which either good or bad depends on situation, depends on ethical culture and etc... Consider those elements, knowledge whether comes from books or from experiences are not enough to identify good from bad, we have to train our mind, nourish it to be clear and critic on things, we don't just believe what people told us, even teacher is not always right, we have to question it and the answer to prove it. An educated man may not have to know a lot of things but sophisticate on things, he didn't put his favor or opinion to judge things. He has moral value as the foundation of his principle and the way he deal on things. Educated man is also versatility and flexibility, can accept and survive any kind of situation.