What is an education?

This is a complex question to answer. To paraphrase the late, great, Sir Ken Robinson: We live in an age of educational inflation. (1) Everyone, seemingly, has a degree or degrees. This was the promise, wasn’t it? A more educated populace would improve the plight of humanity — a higher level of schooling would construct a more loving and caring society. It hasn’t happened, unfortunately, why not?

This is due to the fact that education is not a goal in itself. By this I mean that receiving a master’s degree, for example, does not mean that you are educated. To have a formal diploma, in modern society, simply says that you can, potentially, have a better material life. I can advance on the Litmus test (2) of capitalistic values. More money means more perceived self-worth — a higher social standing.

This, regrettably, does not confirm that a person’s moral development has advanced in tandem with our scholastic improvement. Enrollment in the humanities (philosophy, history, languages, and the like) has been declining exponentially for over 50 years. (3) We want computer programmers, scientists, and engineers, not epistemologists (4) and chronologists.

This is quite alright if the result would be a more gentle and thoughtful community. This is simply not the case. We have become more bitter, angry, and fearful than ever before. (5) We are focused on the acquisition of things. Ownership, however, has its own level of neurosis because I could lose my possessions. The result being that I will feel great physical loss and a diminished state of dignity when they are removed.

In the Great Crash of 1929, large numbers of people lost all of their money. A substantial number of individuals were broken and some of those actually committed suicide. (6) It sounds even more absurd when I write this — they took their life over lucre, not love, nor the loss of family, but capital. Finances can always be improved, this is not true of love or of time. In an even more perverse example: the Einsatzgruppen units of Nazi Germany were led by mostly well-educated men — either a doctor or a lawyer. (7) Their education did not stop their monstrous actions.

The path then to a real education must lead through a just and spiritual portal. In another way of thinking: Not everyone should go to a university. It is not a requisite to a more virtuous life. By way of illustration, the world is in desperate need of tradespeople. (8) People that acquire a skill many times understand the value of hard work and integrity. Mankind is required to turn away from pure capitalism — unbridled avarice.

We must develop a communal plan. How much income do I truly need? Where is my commitment to “the we” not only to “the me?” This concept needs to come to our civilization. If we do not begin to become our brother’s keeper only pain will result. This desire will result from a real education. The great polymath, Albert Einstein (1879-1955), leaves us with a thought: Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

A closing thought: One approach is to learn critical thinking in high school as they do in France. (9) Now this Gallic country has its own conundrums, its own frustrations, but at the very least they are trying to further the idea of liberty, equality, and fraternity. (10) This is juxtaposed against the American dream.

If I work hard, devoid of a social class, or a formal education, I may be successful. Forget those who don’t make it. Today in the richest country on Earth, perhaps in history, over 37,000,000 citizens live below the poverty line. (11) Now, to be fair, this is not the squalor of Africa, but it is still a lifetime of debt. So if I really want to be educated, I must view myself as a gift from God. One who deserves to fulfill his mission in life. I also want all my confreres to achieve the same happiness.

To sum up: This week we spoke about getting a real education.

To be noted: A traditional Iranian proverb — A blind person who sees is better than a seeing person who is blind.

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