A Model of Education
It is radical to suggest, today, perhaps children be taught that they must learn and practice how to be good before they can be happy, rather than teaching them to "be themselves."
I recently wrote an essay regarding the question of liberal education versus vocational job training within the context of typical colleges and universities in the United States today. Many subscribers of Zetetic Questions responded with stories of their own college experiences, and questions regarding education for students below the college level.
As one astute reader pointed out, the immediate educational goal for children cannot be Socratic skepticism, zetetic questioning of the status quo, or philosophy as a way of life, for the simple reason that children lack the mental and moral maturity as well as the self-sufficiency to engage in philosophy as an active, meaningful way of life.
All of that is true.
The big idea I was attempting to communicate is that we need more Socratic souls in our modern United States. We don’t need more regime cheerleaders. We have no shortage of those who swallow hook, line, and sinker—and repeat to others—whatever progressive propaganda our progressive regime flashes before their eyes.
What we need are intelligent skeptics willing to question the postmodern doctrines of relativism, nihilism, and domestic tribalism that have become religious orthodoxy for tens of millions of Americans.
That’s not proper work for children, I agree.
That’s not even proper work for most adults. That’s work fitting only for a select few who are unusually thoughtful, insightful—observers who are the opposite of gullible, whose eyes are wide open, who know the difference between seeming versus being, the way things appear to be and the way things are presented to the naïve many versus the way things actually are.
What, then, is fitting for children? Let us step back and consider the question of education for the young.
VIRTUE
The grand purpose of education for children should be the development of moral and intellectual virtue—which is merely an old word for excellence—and, to an extent, physical virtue, too, because all the virtues are intrinsically connected each to the others.
Just as running fast, throwing accurately, and seeing clearly are physical virtues, so too choosing justice and exercising courage are moral virtues, while thinking well, avoiding logical errors, and looking for accuracy to the degrees various subjects admit of accuracy, are intellectual virtues.
Education for children should begin with the basic tools of thinking and speaking, such as grammar, logic, and what used to be called “rhetoric.”
More abstract thinking, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, should follow, as well as the art that most beautifully connects the realm of numbers with the motions of the soul: music.
These forms of early education should be framed by stories that encourage young minds to love what is good and noble and to be repulsed by that which is morally repulsive. They should explore stories that spark the moral imagination. It does not matter if Mordor was a real place or whether Sauron was a real person; the lesson is that sometimes good people must take a stand against terrifying armies of injustice, even if victory can only be deserved, not guaranteed.
Good fiction should be an important part of a good education that prepares children to live as mature, just, self-governing adults.
Students should see what courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom look like, and require. They should understand how each virtue contains elements of the others. An example Aristotle pointed out long ago: A person frozen with fear or wild with panic is unlikely to think or choose well. Wisdom requires courage.
Aristotle, marble portrait bust, Roman copy of a Greek original; in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy.
Sound education for young people is based upon the premise that choices and actions are inseparable from human life. Part of learning is understanding that by nature healthy hands should be able to grab and hold objects, arms should be able to lift and throw, legs should be able to run and jump. These skills require practice—they’re activities that become greater sources of pleasure for those who perfect them. Students should be encouraged to be physically active and healthy.
And just as physical and sporting activities require practice, focus, and discipline for improvement, the same is true for the moral and intellectual virtues. It is unrealistic to expect a young person who has engaged only in injustice and deceit to become just and honest, instantly. A person who does not know what it means to think well because he has never had practice at thinking—he has never committed logical errors in the presence of a patient teacher who points out the errors and helps the student to reason better—is unlikely to think well when others want or need him to think well.
SEEING THE WORLD BY LOOKING UP
Young students should be introduced to the idea of looking at the world vertically—up and down—hierarchically—because the world is hierarchical, both in nature and in the world of human conventions.
Within nature, all living beings are important. Each has its own place. Still, there are hierarchies. There is a food chain, for example. Some animals are apex predators, others are not. Even within herd animals, one finds social hierarchies.
So, too, among human conventions, there are hierarchies. Each art serves its own purpose and, at the same time, produces a product or condition that is used for higher purposes. The art of saddle-making, for example, produces saddles that are beautiful and used by horsemen; the art of horsemanship produces riders who are used as cavalry by generals; the art of generalship is used by statesmen to secure victory in war.
There is a hierarchy among these ends. Beautiful saddles are pleasing to the eye. Yet, without victory in war, one’s eyes might be gouged out before one is slaughtered by a cruel enemy.
And the hierarchy continues. After victory is achieved by the statesman, the question remains: What should we do with our victory? Should we continue to make war (we can always find new enemies, if needed) merely for the sake of war?
War, too, is an art that points to something higher than itself. War is in the service of peace. We fight wars not because we love war, but because we love the peace victory in war produces.
STUDYING THE GOOD & PRACTICING HOW TO LIVE WELL
Even peace is not the highest good. Once peace is won, we still can and should ask: What should we do with our peace?
How should we live?
How should we live, together, socially and politically, as fellow citizens and potential friends?
How should I, as an individual human being, live?
What is the right or best way of life? What is the way of life most fitting for a being that is both physical and metaphysical, that has both body and mind?
The answer is that peace provides the opportunity to govern ourselves, to live freely and well, to strive for physical, moral, and intellectual excellence, the combination of which are necessary for human happiness, fully and philosophically understood.
Peace provides the opportunity to exercise all the virtues toward which a good education aims. This is why education matters. This is why the right kind of education matters, more.