Jon Spayde -Review of: Learning in the Key of Life

This was written as a review to Jon Spayde's article written in The Presence of Others fifth edition.

Learning in the key of life, avery powerful title for this piece. As Abel Lomas stated, “school helps but it is just the beginning” and Spade wrote, “we didn’t get the whole story in school.” Until recently I never believed in post-secondary education, I always thought that it was a waste of money and time. I believed that the most beneficial knowledge was out between tides in third world country, in the snowy mountians or high in the clouds. Now I understand the importance of not just experiences but post-secondary education. Life experiences combined with traditional schooling is highly important to allow for optimal success and opportunities.

John Ralston Saul compared technology education to lifelong usefull knowlede while stating, “It won’t get you through the next 60 years of your life.” Life is ever changing, the value of the dollar, the technologies we have and even the music. We can not predict the future but we can learn about the past to better help with the future.

Two other statements that stood out to me where:

The idea courtesy of Goethe, that “people cannot learn what they do not love”

The whole word’s a classroom, and to really make it one, the first thing is to believe it is.”

Finding what we love in life and constinatley seeking further knowledge is essential for growing. To me it felt like Spade was really just trying to point out the importance of continous improvement. Setting goals and achieving them. Behaving like a fish out of water, flapping and flipping, seeking out the tool for survival is how we should continue to evolve. Knowledge, education of all kinds is the key of life.