
Education plays a major role in each person’s life. The law states that children have to attend school all the way through 12th grade, in America anyway. But after high school there’s college, masters programs and graduate schools. Education can last a lifetime, and humans should never stop learning. By looking at “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace, one can see that education is imperative because lack of education leads to confusion, general ignorance and false beliefs. In this piece, David Foster Wallace actually uses his speech to educate his audience and help prevent these problems from continuing. 

Wallace starts off this piece (which was also a commencement speech he gave at Kenyon College in 2005), with a joke. Two young fish swim in a river when an older fish swimming the other way passes them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” (Wallace X). As the two younger fish swim along, one turns to the other and says, “What the hell is water?” (X). This joke, however simple it may seem, plays an important role in Foster’s argument. The world often views younger generations as less knowledgeable and naïve, and this stereotype is proven in Wallace’s joke. However, as one gets older, they learn new things and become more knowledgeable. In society, we often see the older people as wiser and more experienced. It therefore becomes the responsibility of the older generations to educate the younger generations, who will in turn educate the generations below them, and so on. These younger fish are uneducated, and thus unaware of their surroundings. They do not know what water is, much less that they live in it. Being aware of one’s environment is necessary in life, and without that information, one can easily get lost in a world that they apparently know nothing about. Each living being on Earth has a niche, and therefore must be aware of their environment in order to fill said niche. 

Wallace not only addresses the lack of education head on, but also hints at it by making points that lead to someone having a thought they might not have realized on their own. Here, Wallace is using a different method to educate his audience. Wallace also argues that everything you experience revolves around “you,” something humans wouldn’t think of because this “basic self-centeredness” is “so socially repulsive” (XII).  He remarks, “The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor” (XII). Until reading this, a person would never consider himself or herself to be the center of the universe. He introduces this idea that to prove that nobody else has had these thoughts, exposing ignorance. By explaining this theory to people, it makes them think, and therefore educates them on this idea. By becoming aware of this situation and now having knowledge on it, those who were previously oblivious to this concept of egocentrism, and more importantly ignorant, become informed. Due to this lack of education, people cannot view things from every angle, and it takes somebody else to point it out, just as Wallace has done. 

Wallace does not only discuss problems like lack of education and ignorance, but also common misconceptions about education. He says, “So let’s talk about the single most pervasive cliché in the commencement speech genre, which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about quote teaching you how to think” (XI). In a similar style to an episode of Mythbusters, a popular television show where two men prove, or disprove, common myths; Wallace debunks the widespread belief that a liberal arts education has “just a material payoff” (XI). Wallace goes on to talk about why the liberal arts cliché is not insulting, claiming that “… the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but the rather about the choice of what to think about” (XI). Wallace argues that obtaining a liberal arts degree does not mean that one has been “taught how to think,” but rather that person has been taught how to choose what to think about, which is much more important. Wallace allows students who graduate with a liberal arts degree to feel more confident about the choice they’ve made by falsifying the myth that a liberal arts education “teaches you how to think” (XI). Every person knows how to think, but these liberal arts students have been educated further than people know. By realizing that each person has to the choice to think about what he or she cares to, the possibility of things that the human race can do is endless. It is important that everyone is educated and stays educated based off of the world around him or her to prevent false beliefs like these.

By beginning his speech with a joke, continuing on to talk about how each experience anyone has is their own and nobody else’s, and finishing by challenging the idea that a liberal arts education just teaches people how to think, Wallace is able to present three ways that the world is uneducated, and the results of these situations. Wallace argues that not only is education important, but rather necessary in society. By not being able to view life from every angle, each person has a biased, skewed view on society, and this lack of education leads to people not reaching their potential. Wallace does not just explain what the problem is, but also makes sure he educated his audience in order to solve this issue. It is obvious that the lack of education leads to confusion, general ignorance and false beliefs in society. 
