FREEWILL LEARNING | THE TRUE EDUCATION
|
We are always in peril, always in a bad plight, just on the edge of destruction, and only to be saved by invention and courage. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson Man is endogenous, and education is his unfolding. The aid we have from others is mechanical, compared with the discoveries of nature in us. What is thus learned is delightful in the doing, and the effect remains. Right ethics are central, and go from the soul outward. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. -- Henry D. Thoreau
|
| The Education Manifesto |
(For the PDF file of the entire article, click here.)
Table of Contents The preface and the first chapter Education redefined The importance of education The current situation: schools, mass media, ethics training, end result The real learners The methodology The Vision
Excerpts ...... True education is missing at schools. Their so-called education is only vocational training and very narrow subject matter. Few colleges claim they will teach you something not for sale, but for your own development. The primary task of education is being disregarded. ...... Education, under the charge of near-sighted people, answers the needs of the job market only, not the needs of individual life, nor the needs of human development as a whole. ...... The real concerns of students are not addressed in schools. Their studies are separate from their problems and questions in life. Subjects and courses are designed to kill their interest, rather than stimulate and inspire it. The inquisitive spark within is soon extinguished by a lack of fresh air, lack of liveliness, lack of relevance, lack of meaning, and loss of sight of the big picture. ...... People think they live a decent life, while blinded to the absurdities that surround them, both near and far. From time to time they feel helpless, hopeless, lost, angry, but do not know why. The fundamentals and insights about life are missing from their mind, and therefore from their character. ...... When we were young, we assumed the world was running on wisdom or at least common sense. We trusted that all the systems were pretty much okay, and that all we needed to do was to follow the set path and make small changes when necessary. We grew up and discovered that this is not the case. On the global scale, the human situation is outrageous. Wherever we look, we see injustice, stupidity, incompetence, indifference, cruelty, insipidity. Lives are thwarted, underdeveloped, buried alive, scrapped. Certainly, we have a lot of wonderful inventions, both in technology and in the social system. The washing machine is a good invention. Democracy is a good invention. But these are not enough. Human conditions are far from ideal. This is true both in the developing and developed countries. It is hard for anyone aware of this situation not to panic. We need a school that can train true thinkers, people who are immune to foolish, narrow doctrines and whose minds will not be hardened by any “isms,” people who can make judgments and choices based on knowledge of the past and the present. More importantly, we need a school that can produce thinkers with a heart, people who choose to care, to fight, to make a difference. ...... Real learners seek true education, not just a specialized knowledge or skill. They have earned a living, and some have become respected professionals. However, they have not learned the foundation of humanity, the secret of a good life, the path to great joy, and the way to make a difference. ...... Most people do not read well. They didn’t have the exposure to great books at school, or later in society. This era of information explosion provides an inexhaustible supply of seemingly useful and entertaining publications, produced by mediocre minds, and dealing with the trivial aspects of human life. People who feed on such inferior mental food are subject to the manipulation of authority and propaganda, the abuse of life’s drudgery and cruelty. They have little strength and power to rise above their environment. The more exposure to popular reading, the more irreversible the development of poor taste. Once the mind is set at mediocrity, there is no possibility for greatness. ...... Stay away from all the hype, the noise, the cheap and easy and fast and popular. Choose a saner existence. Take advantage of the treasures that have stood the test of time. You do not need to read plenty, but you do need to read the best. You do not need to read fast, but you do need to read well. ...... The school will end with questions, too. Its students will have inquisitive minds, not stuffed ones, when they step out the door. All their lives they will be hungry for truth. They will be equipped with fundamental human knowledge and the ability of independent thought. Through them a new generation of free, noble, beautiful, and strong human beings will be born and raised. They will be the parents of a new world, a much better one — one that is of understanding, not hostility; of beauty, not distortion; of creation, not destruction; of honesty, not deception or pretense; of kindness, not cruelty. This world will replace woes and poverty with trees and flowers, concrete jungle with artistic architecture, wars and terrorism with music and sports. ......
|