Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Devil and the De-Valuation of Education

"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." -- C. S. Lewis

Everyone believes in something or someone, whether they realize it or not.

The challenge, then, in educating anyone is to get them aware of their own beliefs (or biases, call them what you will). Next, to examine them in the light of why they believe what they believe. Do there values make sense in the grand scheme of things? How do they account for fundamental concerns, like death or morality?

An education of the mind without an education of the soul is just a glittering road littered with vice. Knowledge without direction, trusting the human mind alone to aid and abet a man's path, will certainly lead to the primacy of one's convictions absent and present confirmation.

Such "True Believers" become so easily swayed by their convictions, that they go to any lengths to make their point, to impose their vision, and to repudiate anyone who disagrees or stands in their way.

Thus sprang forth the totalitarian dictators of the 20th and 21st centuries, with President Obama trailing meekly behind.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, when unchecked and ill-defined by lasting customs and respectable traditions.

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