If you went to college, then you’re deemed to be educated. Meaning, presumably, bright, smart, mentally quick, brainy. If you didn’t, then you’re held to be uneducated. Meaning, also presumably, dull, stupid, mentally slow, and anything but brainy. 

But there are bright people who never went to school. And there are people with several advanced college degrees who couldn’t think their way out of a telephone booth. 

So diplomas and sheepskins can’t really tell you anything about the mental capabilities of those who hold them. Or of those who don’t, for that matter. 

But there is something that can — the words people use to express themselves. 

Big, obscure, abstract words suggest that the speaker is a foggy, wooly-headed thinker. Small, familiar, concrete words tell you that the speaker has his or her head screwed on right, as that wonderful metaphor goes. 

It’s not surprising, therefore, that Albert Einstein undertook to write a book explaining his theory of relativity in simple, everyday language at about the time he made his discovery known to the world. That he chose to do so and that he was able to do so both suggest that he was truly an educated man. 

And it’s also not surprising that Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph advised his disciples almost 2,000 years ago that they should never live in a city run by scholars. 

Think about it.