Jon Spayde: Learning in the Key of Life

Spayde refers to education as training for competition. He does not believe that in class education is the only means in understanding the many concepts in life. He talks about slow knowledge and fast knowledge, and how some things in life are common sense. People usually can tell what "ought to be". "It is knowledge 'shaped and calibrated to fit a particular ecological and cultural context,' he writes, distinguishing it from the 'fast knowledge' that zips through the terminals of the informatin society." I think what Spayde is saying is that slow knowledge is something you acquire and learn as you go. You pick up on facts about cultures and genres, and you are not taught in one single class session. Fast knowledge, on the other hand, is something that can be taught in as little as an hour. Sitting down and writing out the facts is fast knowledge, because it does not have to be learned and tested out through everyday experiences. It is a solidified fact, and therefore it can be instilled in a person's head in a quick manner. "School helps, but it's just the beginning of the engagement between ideas and reality - as Abel Lomas can attest." I believe that life experiences are what can further an education in a person's life. School informs a person all of the basics as far as specific subjects such as math and english, but it does not inform a person on cultures and ideas of different types of people.