Wallace centers his speech around his thought of significant education not being "the capacity to think, but rather the choice of what to think about". I completely agree. In the modern day American education system the curriculum is already planned by higher ups before the teacher even has a chance to greet his new round of students. The teacher is limited to teach only what he is expected to teach and therefore the students are limited to think only what they are expected to think. Even though not purposefully intended to occur, many times a closed-mindness sense of thought is created. As Wallace mentioned, people get stuck in the same day to day thoughts and become prisoners to their own egotistical thoughts. I can say that personally I catch myself doing that far too often for my liking. I often forget that there are other people in the world going through more difficult situations than my own. I blindly compare my horrible day to a woman who's day was just shattered by the news of her house going into foreclosure. Wallace made it clear that I am in command of my thoughts. That I can make my negative pesky thoughts into considerate meaningful thoughts. That I can choose to live day by day in a dreadful world or I can choose to spend my time conjuring up sincere and thoughtful awareness of the world.
I enjoyed reading this article and gaining some insight into another form of a "real" education. I thank Wallace for starting a new trend in my thoughts also for showing me that in the end I get to decided what thoughts have meaning and what thoughts do not.
good comments. I like how you expanded on one particular part of the article.
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