There are many different interpretations about what an educated person is. Skinner, a celebrated psychologist, says on education, "Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." This quote means a person is not smart because they have learned a great deal; it is all about what they retained. After I have read The Idea of a University by John Henry Newman, a well-known Anglican priest and Cardinal, I realized that a person should have knowledge in all areas. People need to know what an educated person is so they know what the standards are, and what they need to do to be educated. On the other hand, if a person does not get knowledge in all areas, they are not necessarily uneducated. For example, police officers do not have to go through many years of college, and they do not need to get educated in many areas besides criminal justice. The officers still help out society, without a liberal arts degree and intelligence in all of the branches of knowledge. Also, a teacher in one subject is smart in that subject, and knows a lot about that subject. Newman says an educated person is someone with knowledge in all branches. I disagree with Newman on his view of an educated person.
Newman believes that an educated person is one who has a liberal arts education. There are many branches of knowledge, which makes it hard to attain information in all of them. The branches are Social Science, Natural Sciences, Humanities, Fine Arts, Applied Sciences, and Scriptures. According to Newman, an educated person needs to expand the mind and interpret. Newman says, "We feel our minds to be growing and expanding then, when we not only learn, but refer what we learn to what we know already" (37). For a great education, the intellect must be trained with knowledge. Newman also had a view on intellect as well. He said, "To-day I have confined myself to saying that that training of the intellect, which is best for the individual himself, best enables him to discharge his duties to society" (40).
