What is an Educated Person?

An educated person has acquired a broad set of skills and knowledge that enables him or her to participate as a citizen in a diverse democracy and interconnected global world. An educated person is an abstract and critical thinker, an effective communicator, an evaluator of information, and a qualitative and quantitative problem solver. An educated person possesses in-depth knowledge in at least one area of formal study and has become a self-directed, life-long learner.

An educated person has come to understand the legacy and history that binds us together, the power of artistic and social productions of human imagination and expression across cultures, the practice and methods of inquiry used in natural and social sciences and in humanities and the arts. An educated person has learned to tolerate ambiguity, to cultivate curiosity and empathy, and to meld it with the practice of disciplined, independent thinking into a coherent, reasoned understanding of the world.

An educated person possesses values that foster self respect and respect for others. He or she values intellectual humility and honesty as well as rigorous consideration of the ethical consequences of decisions that are made. An educated person speaks, acts, and thinks in the knowledge that he or she is part of a whole.