Thanks for joining us on this, our 87th venture into this wildness which is the EnT! We’re glad you’re here for this discussion on self-education and other associated and sundry topics!

Reach for the YouTube dial while there’s still a dial left to imagine! #ednontech

You may suspend your disbelief and imagine us on the other side of this audio, if you’re so inclined! #ednontech

IMG_20251121_0001

I conclude, from your presence here, that you regard self-education as not only a duty but a privilege.

Whitehurst, Edward C. (1855). Self-Education: a Lecture. London, B. D. Cousins, Helmet Court, Strand.

One can say, generally, that up to the fairly recent wide-spread and readily available schooling for everybody, self-education was the prime way for man to cope with the world around him.

With the introduction of free compulsory education for children, following the industrial revolution, many educators have forgotten the need of the adult to continue on learning, although the working man struggling for his place in the industrial society and the North American self-made man provide us with ample examples of the self-educated adult.

Kulich, J. (1970). An Historical Overview of the Adult Self-Learner.

Self-education must above all consist in this, that where one perceives one’s shortcomings, one strengthens one’s own resources and that one does not relinquish this responsibility to the school, or rely on school grades, or on school reports or on whatever is given a premium by parents.

Gadamer, H. G. (2001). Education is self-education. Journal of philosophy of education, 35(4), 529-538.

So, what is necessary for self-education?

To receive considerable results from the processes of self-education, self-development and self-improvement, strong wish and willpower are necessary.

Kopteva, G. (2020). About self-education. The Scientific Heritage, (53-4), 52-54.

Self-education always takes place outside the educational institutions. 

Also, self-education takes place only when there is no personal obligation to learn and when education is not imposed by any authority, in any formal environment, according to any official curriculum.

Mihai, O. I. (2021). Self-education and lifelong learning. IJASOS-International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences, 7(19), 142-145.

Socrates spoke about the wise as those who have mastered self-control, and declared himself as a selflearner who is not ashamed to learn from everyone around him. 

Plato – the ultimate goal of education is the ability of the adult for self-education. 

Aristotle – the principle of self-realization, a potentiality for wisdom which can be developed both through self-education and through the help of a teacher. 

Seneca – all education through others must ultimately aim at inculcating the ability for self-education, and that this ability needs frequent re-charging and guidance from outside the individual.

 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi – “I have to raise myself, through my own effort, to the degree of perfection made possible by my own nature”

 Edward Gibbon – “Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.” 

Edmund Coote – Englische Scholemaister (1596) – “it was designed not only for the teacher, but also for ‘the unskillful, which desire to make use of it, for their owne private benefit”

Self-education

How could self education realistically replace institutionalized schooling?

I did not go anywhere with it because I was not motivated.

Don’t you be scared, don’t you be scared
Everybody’s terrified, it don’t seem fair
What are you waiting for?
What do you think you were created for? #ednontech