What 'education' really means

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2006)

Other reviewers, professional and public alike, have praised this movie to the skies for its superb writing, fine acting, and smooth direction. This was, of course, the career-maker for two of Hollywood's biggest stars, and an inspiration to young would-be filmmakers.
One element that has not, perhaps, received as much attention is the degree to which this movie deconstructs for the audience one of its primary tropes: what it means to be educated. As an educator, I find the point a crucial one, and one which elevates this movie from the merely "very good" to the level of "important."
There is certainly a simple surface reading, in several scenes in which the audience is explicitly told that it is individual talent, ambition, and personal character which make for genius, not just a collection of degrees after your name from a prestigious university. The best of these is the scene early on at the bar, as Matt Damon's "Will Hunting" character dresses down one preppie pseudo-intellectual after another, revealing that the 'education' they have received could have been bettered at any local library. It's funny, and it's true: education doesn't happen when you get an "A" in a class, it happens when you internalize a bit of knowledge so thoroughly that you can integrate it, on the fly, with other material, as Hunting proceeds to do in a blistering (and hilarious) verbal assault.
But just as important is the subtext of Damon's character's story-arc as he proceeds from working-Joe to star-pupil. Rather than being seduced by the prospect of grants, lab-space, or prestigious employment which his degree could net him, Hunting chooses to pursue his principles (and the love of his life). It could be a ham-handed, overly dramatic feel-good moment, but it's not because Hunting doesn't arrive at this decision by giving up his brains and following his heart. Quite the opposite. His decision is almost cold-bloodedly rational. It is arrived at after much debate, external and internal, and a number of quotes, statistics, anecdotes and analogies are forwarded from both sides of the debate: it's an instance of education in action, not as a bloodless, disconnected ivory-tower theory, but as a living model for our lives. Would that more students would approach their educations in that fashion.