Education: Food for Thought

Education

We are a blessed people.  We live in a society which has defined itself through its short 240 years of history as an arbiter of change and progress.  From the abolishment of slavery, to the civil rights movement, to women’s suffrage, we have—as a nation—shown we have the capacity to readjust our values when it has been proven to us that we are committing an injustice.  We keep learning from our mistakes.  And from our many mistakes has sprung forth the society in which we live in.  We are the product of our past and the preamble to our future.  Whether we are a society to be proud or ashamed of is unclear.  But in order to understand our place in the history of the United States of America, we must always be trying to look at the bigger picture.  And that perspective always starts with education.

Why education above all other things?  Because education is that which affects all other areas of our country; and especially because we live in a democratic society.  Democracy means we are not one people.  We are a few hundred million persons attempting to achieve (more or less) the same goals.  Every child born in this country has the opportunity to eventually preside over the greatest power we can allot to one of our citizens: the Presidency of the United States of America.  Within every child (ideally) there is infinite potential.

What most of us realize, however, is that potential really means nothing if it is not actualized.  Education is the primary means by which the government tries to make “better” citizens.  The mandated 12 years of school is supposed to establish a basis of aptitude that will create educated citizens.  At the same time, we are currently experiencing an intense advertising campaign for higher education, and it is working.  We see more high school graduates, more college graduates, and more post-collegiate studies than ever before.  Our society, as a whole, is largely a much more educated one than we’ve ever had.

The question no one seems to be asking is: “And then what?” What happens when we get a majority of our society to be highly educated?  Are we done?  Or do we keep pushing higher and higher forms of knowledge until studies continue for some post-post-post doctorate degree until the student is 45 years old?  Of course not, formalized education ad infinitum is absurd.  What seems to be the hang up is that we are treating education as our end-goal.  The attitude is that once we have enough smart people, everything else will start to fall into place: the economy, the healthcare system, foreign policy, they will all wither under the collective might of our specialized learned citizens.

So we get a large majority of learned citizens, then what?

The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986)

Wisdom versus Knowledge

Let’s tackle this question abstractly.  That is to say, let us look at what “pure education” might mean.  In order to avoid confusion, however, I’d like to make sure we are very clear on two terms before delving into the realm of abstraction.  These two terms are knowledge and wisdom.

Let’s take knowledge to refer to any thoughts, concepts, facts, techniques, or ideas which allow one to effectively accomplish the tasks they have set out to complete. Or, put simply, the “what” and the “how” one must understand in order to perform a task. 

Wisdom we shall take to mean the ability to make value-based judgments on the causes, short and long term effects, and to understand various perspectives of specific actions.  Or, put simply: the “why” and “when” one must understand in order to judge both the effectiveness and “rightness” (or “wrongness”) of an action.  In addition let’s try to treat wisdom (to the greatest extent we can) as separate from any specific moral judgments or beliefs.  Let’s treat wisdom as an absolute, not tied to any specific religion or national perception.

The importance of knowledge is self-evident in education as it is a precursor to ability in a democratic society.  Without being properly informed, one cannot perform certain tasks or fulfill their democratic obligations, such as voting for who they agree with.  Wisdom is a less clear area.  Once an individual has acquired knowledge or ability, is it necessary that they also have judgment about their actions?  In some societies the answer is no; those in power are capable or authorized to direct the efforts of the masses with enough control that they can be treated as little more than tools in the greater scope of the nation.  In a democracy however, this is not the case.  Each individual has the freedom and power to choose their actions based on their own judgment.  For a society such as ours, the wisdom to know when and why one should act is indispensible to all who are given the power and knowledge of action.

In fact, it is a well established maxim that…

Knowledge is Power

Therefore if knowledge is power, then our emphasis on education is actually an attempt to become a more powerful nation.  That sounds like a good thing right?  Don’t we want to be a strong country?  Shouldn’t we be proud of building a stronger America?

Well no…not really.  When viewed through this lens, the strategy of education seems reckless at best.  I am sure I don’t need to inform you of the countless parables and fables which depict misuse of power..  The peril of power without judgment is a lesson many of us learn early in life through fiction or mass media.

Now let’s be clear.  I am not saying that knowledge or power is bad.  In fact I believe quite adamantly that it is necessary for the growth of both us as a society, and us as a human race.  Knowledge alone is the frightening concept here.  It is not surprising that with the advent of such a steep rise in education, some have postulated that:

Science has made us gods before we are worthy of being men. — Jean Rostand (1894-1977)

Where has the wisdom gone?

The approach towards wisdom is a fairly hands-off attitude.  Wisdom is important but cannot be taught in a classroom; it is learned elsewhere: at home, through sports or team activities, or simply over time as one spends more time on earth.  The question we must then ask ourselves is: “Is it enough?”  We have drastically increased the knowledge and ability of a fair percentage of our society, but have let the acquisition of wisdom stay relatively static.  It is simply assumed that people will pick up wisdom along the way.

 

One problem is that wisdom is much more difficult to “teach” than knowledge.  Fostering wisdom in a classroom setting is a difficult, if not impossible, venture.  The closest most schools come are the rare institutions in which logic and proper critical thinking are emphasized; however these are precursors to wisdom, not wisdom itself.  So we must ask ourselves if it is possible for wisdom to be “taught” from a government level.  The standards for education and knowledge are not easily adapted to evaluate wisdom for one main reason: wisdom is a much more personal attribute than knowledge.  Wisdom is not only based on your experiences, but as much as we may attempt to separate it from moral judgments, it is inextricably bound to one’s personal set of beliefs and moral opinions.  For these prominent reasons formal education is ill suited to foster wisdom.

In previous eras, religion has been the main source of wisdom for the populace; however our separation of church and state, as well as the general trend of younger generations to turn aside from formalized religious establishments make them an ineffective tool for fostering wisdom.  In addition, each religious establishment has its own moral beliefs, and their teachings are tailored to that specific set of beliefs, not to increasing wisdom itself.  Wisdom as taught by the Catholic Church, for example, should be treated the same as Catholic Ethics or Catholic Morality.  It is not inherently better or worse than another form of wisdom, but it is a specific, focused aspect of wisdom that is not universally applicable; just as Catholic Ethics cannot be applied to every culture and society neither can Catholic Wisdom hold up universally.

Without government or religious establishments to cultivate wisdom in the general populace, what resources are we left with?

One perspective is that wisdom should be taught at home; that family life should teach moral and ethical judgments to supplement the knowledge gained by formal education.  The obvious problem with this approach is that anyone can become a parent, and in fact many parents do not posses wisdom, let alone the ability to promote wisdom in their children’s lives.  While this method may work in isolated cases, it is unreliable and cannot guarantee that our standards of judgment as a society will keep pace with our ever-increasing abilities.

We live in a society which idolizes youth, so even our “elders” are typically shunned as being out of date or needing to be taken care of rather than as valuable or wise perspectives.  And even if this were to change, we cannot rely on every person who has survived several decades to actually have grown in their capacity for wisdom.  It is just as unreliable a method as relying on parents.

What we are left with then, is a distinct lack of sources of wisdom.  We have created a society which has either shunned, incapacitated, or lost respect for all traditional sources of wisdom without any obvious attempt made to replace those sources.

So what does this all mean?  Is there any evidence to support that we are heading down a dangerous path?  No: none that cannot be explained away by a different perspective or a stubborn politician. This is by no means an empirical discussion.  This is simply a question.  How can we integrate an improvement in judgment of our individual citizens, especially those who are learning to grow in knowledge and ability?  There may not be a clear answer, but it’s a question which should be asked.  Education alone is not enough to provide positive change for our future.  Without wisdom, all we have are a whole lot of facts, with no context, meaning, or direction.

Food For Thought

99% of us are born healthy and are made sick as a result of personal misbehavior and environmental conditions. — John H. Knowles

Let’s take the nutrition as an example of what happens with knowledge in the absence of wisdom.  At the moment we are a truly diet obsessed culture.  The incredible number of programs which judge food based on either calories, or some abstract system of points, is staggering.  We have more “information” about food than we could ever hope to understand.  It seems that every week there is a new “superfood” which is nutritionally superior because of some new nutrient we just discovered.  To counter this, there’s always some “hidden threat” in one of your favorite foods, which just might be hurting you in ways we didn’t realize before.

It’s always the same story. New information comes out, and the mass populace desperately tries to adapt in order to keep a healthy lifestyle.  This information isn’t processed or judged however; not by the average citizen.  The experts tell us what we should conclude from the facts, and we as a people follow them blindly.  We have all of the information, all of the knowledge needed to make more informed choices.  The problem is that we have such a vast quantity of information, the task seems too daunting, and therefore we continue to ride the roller-coaster.

Nowhere in the swamp of media coverage over nutrition is there any evidence that wisdom is being applied.  It seems that people just aren't interested in thinking about what they eat.  They want someone else to tell them what to eat; they want someone else to make those judgments for them.  Once they are told what is healthy or unhealthy, then they can proceed with their lives.

If we wish to create a society of not just wiser, but healthier people, then we need to start asking ourselves what we can do to spread wisdom.  We must find another source of the so called "deeper learning" so that we grow and develop in a positive direction.  This will affect not just food and diet, but every interaction every human being has.  This staggeringly profound change can only come about through refocusing our efforts.   We are so worried about wars, poverty, obesity, we are failing to acknowledge the underlying causes.

So right now: before you forget, before the minor details of maintenance overwhelm your thinking process, go find a way to be a little more wise.  Perhaps reflect inward and see about addressing one of those pesky life lessons that lies just beneath the surface of human experience.  Maybe these small changes will create the better world you've been hoping for.