Chedva Ovadia
Touro University
Placement Test
July 27, 2026
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Is Education Like a Pail or a Fire?
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“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” (Poet William Butler
Yeats). This quotation from the poet William Butler Yeats raises a question. Is education
something that is standstill and unmoving? Or rather is it a fire with moving energy and desire to
consume? Goods that collect in a pail can be stored but there is nothing more than that. However
fire once ignited grows, spreads and consumes everything in its path. The Poet states that
education is a fire indicating that it is something that grows, spreads and consumes everything in
its path.
The above quotation is a parable to education. On the one hand fire can be a useful tool
and asset yet fire can also be detrimental. A commodity in a pail is a good storage solution but
there is also the risk of it staying stagnant for a long period of time and therefore becoming
unusable. The same is seen in education. An individual with a drive and passion for learning is
likened to a fire. When someone explores information that they have an interest for their drive to
gain knowledge on the subject aids them in absorbing and finding the information.They are
motivated to move forward the same way a fire moves quickly and wants to consume anything in
its path. However if a person does not have a drive or motivation to gain knowledge it is like a
pail. The information may fill up but it will remain still and is in danger of being lost.
There are benefits and disadvantages to each method of learning. Gaining information
like a fire can lead someone to find information that they should not know, false information and
details that they did not want to encounter. This way of learning can also be a great asset because
only someone who truly cares about what they are learning will go as far as they need to find the
truth. Education that is absorbed like a water pail is a great way to store and gain information.
Although without the drive to move forward and a use for the information it can be easily
forgotten.
I agree with the quotation of the poet. When education is like the filling of a pail the
information is just stored away and can be forgotten. There is a famous talmudic from Sanhedrin
99a which is as follows, “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa says: Anyone who studies Torah and does
not review it is comparable to a person who sows and does not reap”. Proven from our sages that
in order to remember information must be reviewed. Learning and applying like a fire that keeps
moving is definitely better than just filling up information and letting it sit to be forgotten. Are
you allowing the precious information within you to be forgotten?