Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Learning is not synonymous with education, although the two are indeed like two peas in a pod. While it’s good to nourish both, one in particular stands taller and is capable of enduring the test of time.

I’m talking about education, of course. Learning means to acquire knowledge of a particular skill by repetition, whereas education is a much more complex process, one where the individual receives systematic instruction, usually in school, to advance and hone multiple traits at once. However, probably the most important type of education is received at home, even before school. And I’m guessing it’s this kind of education that B. F. Skinner was talking about when he said…

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

– B. F. Skinner

Education doesn’t just help you become useful for society. It also helps you build character – something that sticks with you until your last breath. Skinner’s choice of words evokes it best.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990), commonly referred to as B. F. Skinner, was an American psychologist, professor, and inventor. He was also a social philosopher and he wrote books.

He is known for his principle of reinforcement, which states (in rough terms) that free will doesn’t really exist. Bad consequences leads to more careful behavior on our part, whereas good consequences tells us to repeat those actions.

Skinner developed radical behaviorism, a philosophy of science that led him to found a school of experimental research psychology. As the author of 21 books and 180 articles and science papers, Skinner was considered by contemporary academia as a pioneer of modern behaviorism, alongside John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov.