True education is training of both the head and the heart. In the words of Steven Muller, ”Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don’t provide a framework of values to young people, who more and more are searching for it.” We need to compete for knowledge and wisdom, not for grades. Knowledge is piling up facts, wisdom is simplifying it. One could have good grades and a degree without learning much. People confuse education with the ability to memorize facts. Education of the mind without morals creates a menace to society. According to Socrates, to be educated, first, your ability to manage well the circumstances, which you encounter day by day; and if you can judge situations appropriately as they arise and rarely miss the suitable course of action. “Next, if you’re honorable in your dealings with all men, bearing easily what is unpleasant or offensive in others, and being as reasonable with your associates as is humanly possible. Furthermore, if you hold your pleasures always under control and are not unduly overcome by your misfortunes, bearing up under them bravely and in a manner worthy of our common mature. “More important of all, if you are not spoiled by your successes, and do not desert your true selves, but hold your ground steadfastly as wise and sober-minded men, rejoicing no more in the good things that have come to you through chance than in those which through their own nature and intelligence are theirs since birth. If you have a character which is in accord, not with one of these things, but with all of them you are educated –possessed of all the virtues.” The best education without commonsense is worthless. An abundance of commonsense is called wisdom.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 08:41:45 +0000