I've spent essentially my entire adult life so far in academics, and you are spot on about this phenomenon. An ‘education’ was a magical thing to our parents’ generations, and they gave undue credibility to the ‘wisdom’ of higher education. The reality is that wisdom is not something that you can acquire in any university, graduate school, or professional program of study. Further, the erroneous belief that your education makes you wiser than others is a serious downside of higher education - resulting in a closed mind and a wasted intellect. My advice to everyone is to never cede an argument or opinion to anyone just because of their educational background or degrees. No one has a monopoly on ‘smart’ or ‘wise’, and the kind of diversity that truly does make us stronger is diversity of thought - something you don't see anymore in academics.
My husband asked me a question tonight.
I had often told him how proud I was of the way he helped his father, when Father was dying of cancer; and he asked me, ‘Why were you proud? what did I do?’
I told him that he had been raised right, with profound personal values, by his parents; that he had always lived by those values; that he was full of love for his family; and that he was very intelligent - which nature, combined with the cultivation of it by a very good educational system - all came together in his care for his dear father.
My husband got his wisdom from several generations of people who cultivated him; and when he went to school, everything he learned there was informed by the REAL education that he received at generations of ‘knees’.
No school can educate anyone to become an authentic human being, unless certain basic values are instilled long before they even get to school. That means: Mothers and Fathers of good values themselves.