The more important issue is the question of why attaching endless new meanings to things should be in itself a good thing. And the answer is this: By attaching more meanings to things, by bringing more of experience under our current range of meaning and extending our range to embrace more things in more complex and abstract or sometimes ambiguous ways, we enable ourselves to experience more of life in a given present, a given now. An educated person experiences more than does a noneducated person. This is not to say that there is something inherently bad or damaged about lives that lack education. An uneducated human life commands the same dignity as any other. But given the opportunity, you are a fool not to avail yourself of every means to extend your experience in the now. The quality of education is our central means for doing that.

Andrew Abbott, “The Zen of Education”