In America, everyone is entitled to an education. Depending on where you live, how you are raised, and your resources, not everyone’s education is equal. People who have a good educational background are knowledgeable about a broad range of things, and they tend to display similar traits, behaviors, and actions. Often, it can be easy to tell if someone is poorly educated by looking for these telltale signs.
They are Closed Minded
Education is all about opening your mind to learn about different things, people, and cultures. Someone small or closed-minded usually has a very limited education. Often, people reject things out of either misinformation or fear. When they do learn the truth about certain ideations and assumptions, often they are more willing to open their mind to learning more and letting go of untrue assumptions.
They Tend to be Less Tolerant
When you are not worldly and do not have the educational background to learn about other cultures, belief systems, and traditions, you make unfair assumptions about who and what someone or an entire race is. Tolerance is about being empathetic and seeking to learn about and understand others. When you have a poor educational experience, you usually make your mind up, and that is that.
Manners Are Not a Priority
Education usually goes hand in hand with affluence, which is guided by a certain expectation about someone’s behavior. If you aren’t taught the same values or social mores, then you typically don’t understand etiquette. If someone is poorly educated, they probably aren’t concerned with what side of the plate the water glass rests on.
They Struggle with Technology
Although many people would think that everyone has the same conveniences and devices, not everyone owns a cell phone. Also, not everyone has access to digital devices or even a streaming company. Those who don’t have access to things like computers and the internet necessarily can’t hop right on and surf the net. Basic tasks that many of us take for granted, like asking Google, are not something that someone who has very little education is accustomed to using.
Lack of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is not a skill that everyone is born with. If they are, they usually have to be fostered and encouraged to develop. Analyzing and evaluating are all necessary parts of forming an opinion or judgment about something. When someone hasn’t had encouragement and instruction to fine-tune ways to think critically, it will often show in struggling to provide a valid argument to explain their perspective.
Problem-Solving Skills are Typically Poor
Education is usually aimed at giving children problem-solving skills. Formal education is a progression of ideas teaching children to build higher reasoning skills. When someone has missed the mark being taught problem-solving tactics, they usually have a hard time deciding, analyzing, and thinking through a subject logically.
Little Understanding of Abstract Concepts
When someone hasn’t been challenged educationally, they cannot often think abstractly. Things tend to be very black and white to someone who has had a poor educational background. Not understanding abstract thought also leads to a limitation in the ability to engage in advanced discussions requiring topics that involve a degree of philosophical or theoretical exploration.
Low Degree Of Inquisition
People who have not been challenged with a good education tend to take things for face value. They do very little investigating or inquisition about subjects for which they don’t know. A good educational background encourages independent thought, curiosity, and questioning. When those things aren’t fostered, they typically are nonexistent in a person’s frame of mind.
No Understanding of Scientific Reasoning
Scientific reasoning is a way that you take a theory and follow it to the end. It is a way to examine the truth of things. Those who have not had a formal education tend not to understand the tenancies of experimental thought and theory. Things like the scientific method or basic biology are lost on someone who hasn’t been introduced to higher educational concepts.
Sticking to Simple Instructions
People who have not had to follow complex steps and instructions are limited to basic commands. When confronted with complex instructions, the multi-step process they require is often too much for them to follow. When you have had limited educational instruction, it can affect not just your professional task competencies but also your personal ones.
Hard Time Deciphering an Opinion from Fact
When someone has a very limited educational background, they are often fed “facts” and never really asked to do much but spit back what they have memorized. It takes critical thinking to ask the questions necessary to find out how factual something is. People with a poor education often tend to accept what those who appear in authority say, regardless if there are facts to substantiate it or not. They are usually not the ones to follow debates and figure out what the real truth of the situation is.
Poor Reading Skills
Reading isn’t just about looking at the alphabet and putting words together. Those without a good educational background tend to have a hard time comprehending what they read. When someone has a difficult time comprehending things, it can lead to misunderstanding details and struggling with complex things. Poor reading skills can limit someone’s ability to stay well informed on their own.
Basic Math Problems and Concepts Aren’t Basic
If someone struggles with what some might consider “basic” math skills and concepts, it might be an indication of the quality of their education. Arithmetic such as addition, multiplication, and division, which most of us assume are the standards of an education, aren’t. When someone isn’t taught the basics of math correctly, it can lead to problems with everyday things and tasks that most of us take for granted. Those who weren’t taught appropriately can have trouble with things considered easy, such as banking and shopping.
Poor Grammar or a Limited Vocabulary
People who just get through the basics of an education have a hard enough time reading and writing. Things like grammar and a wide vocabulary aren’t even on their radar. Someone with very little formal education typically sticks to very simple sentences and word repetition. They also tend to struggle with big words that aren’t commonly used. That can limit a person’s ability to communicate in an adult world.
Difficulty Explaining Complex Thoughts
Some people who do not get the education that they deserve have a hard time explaining their thoughts to others. When you can’t find the correct words to tell someone your ideas and thoughts, that can limit your ability to advance in the workplace and relationships with others. It is often hard to understand someone fully when they don’t have the vocabulary to describe things appropriately or to the degree necessary to find commonality.
General Knowledge is Generally Not There
We tend to all think that our experiences are the same and that there are just general things that everyone knows. That is not the truth. Many people lacking a good education don't know things that one would think everyone does. Common concepts and facts that aren’t taught in school are not common to people who have not been introduced to them. They are quite foreign.
Global Issues Get Lost
If you haven’t ever been taught about other places and cultures, it is hard to hold a conversation of your own about global events. When you don’t know the background of why conflicts between and among nations exist, it is hard to understand why current conflicts are happening and what people are actually fighting about. Not learning about other cultures also limits your ability to empathize or understand another culture's perspectives.
Organization and Time Management are a Struggle
Time management and organizational skills are not something that come naturally for most. Education is a way that people learn how to organize their thoughts and manage their time to get stuff done. When not guided properly, it is hard to know what to prioritize, how to keep things separate and cataloged, and how to circle back to the start to piece things together. Those who weren’t taught specific higher learning skills tend to have a more fragmented and scattered thinking and thought structure.
Poor Writing Skills
Writing is something that most people need to practice. If you haven’t ever had to write an essay or go through the writing process formally, then things like Chicago-style or MPA-style writing mean nothing to you. If you haven’t been exposed to a good educational background, it is nearly impossible to be successful with higher educational goals.
Poor Nutrition and Self Care Habits
Not everyone is taught that eating healthy foods is a must or that brushing your teeth is a necessity to keep away dental carries. You would assume that everyone knows self-care and nutritional information, but that isn’t the case. If someone doesn’t have a grasp of what is healthy versus what is not, they probably were too focused on survival growing up.
Resistance to Learning
When someone resists learning, it can be because they don’t want to expose their lack of knowledge. When you shut down your willingness to open your mind to learning new things, it is often because you are so far behind that it just becomes frustrating. Frustration can lead to low self-esteem for those who just don’t get it. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t smart enough to get it; it might just be that they haven’t been introduced to the basics necessary to build.
Although America guarantees its citizens the right to an education, not everyone's educational quality is the same. If children aren't given the skills and tools necessary to excel in higher reasoning situations, it can limit their ability to be successful. A good education is worth its weight in gold, and if you have one, you are extremely lucky.
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