The purpose of education.

The purpose of education.

One of the things that seems most timely to discuss right now is education.  When we think about that topic, I often hear it discussed in a very utilitarian way.  I am not a big fan of utilitarianism.  Utilitarianism is the philosophy that espouses something (or someone) needs to be useful in order to be valuable.  When we start talking about "usefulness" in this context, such a discussion usually ends with trying to justify how education is important to people getting a job, "contributing" to society, or otherwise demonstrating that they or the subject matter involved has some kind of utility.  

Let's start with the premise that humans always have inherent value.  I think this is where the narrative with utilitarianism starts to go askew because when we go down the path of analyzing humans against a utilitarian model this brings up awkward and immoral conversations about one person's relative worth versus another's, and that leads to the slippery slope of eugenics and end of life decisions.  It also sounds strangely capitalistic by valuing a human's earning potential versus what they "cost" society.  That road goes nowhere pretty, and why for me, as a Catholic, I believe all life has inherent value because we are created in the image and likeness of our creator.  I also tend to think this about animals, insects and all life, because it all is derived from the same source: our creator.  

If we move to the domain of the Arts, utilitarianism brings about an ugly result there as well.  From a utilitarian perspective,  buildings are only valued for their function and use, and not for their Beauty (the capital "B" is an intentional ode to Plato). Utilitarianism in architecture, including church architecture, was a big movement in the 1970's, which is hence the reason why we get square, ugly cement boxes, instead of the Sistine Chapel or the Pantheon.  A beautiful piece of music or a work of art, like human life, should not have to prove its usefulness.  It is beautiful as a creation of one created by God.  Within each composition, when it is truly pointing to higher ideals,  is a spark of the divine.  Music and art education should not have to prove any utility but should be valued solely for the expression of human creativity each embody.   

So that brings me to education as an inherent good.  As I think about the pandemic and our ability to cope with it, one of the things that certainly aids that endeavor is the ability to entertain oneself.  The more things we know how to do, the more things we can do, and the more things we can teach ourselves and others.  We can also have a background of historical suffering in which to ground our own individual suffering, understanding we haven't been singled out and aren't being punished.  Life isn't always to be measured by "happiness", money or worldly success.  Happiness, as we understand it today, seems to be a feeling instead of a choice.  Maybe that's part of the problem.  We can't feel our way into happiness; we can only make a choice to try and gain perspective that allows us to see joy through suffering instead of choosing anger, resentment, jealousy and fear. 

We too often view education as a vocational enterprise, instead of a spiritual and intellectual one.  Too many colleges and universities have catered to students and parents who demand dormitories and buildings of a certain calibre, and all the amenities one can imagine.  This, coupled with a bloated administrative staff, too great a focus on sports, and too many varied degrees, has exponentially cxploded the cost of college to the point that students who graduate are over-burdened with debt, and parents are "unhappy" (there's that word again) that their child can't find a job to support himself/herself.  A university really should be a place where a student is taught to think, analyze and to learn how to adapt.  It should be a proving ground for adulthood and struggles of the intellectual and social kind; a launch pad for an adulthood in which the person will face many challenges, obstacles, hurdles, failures, and an uneven path of stops and starts.  The idea is to instill sufficient skills to learn new things along the way, analyze, think critically, and adapt.  Education does not end in a terminal degree that stops once a benchmark has been met.  It is not meant to prepare you for a job in the sense that you go through certain coursework and come out "certified" in your field.  The preparation happens not in the acquisition of knowledge, which by itself is largely fleeting and worthless without wisdom, but in the wisdom learned over the course of experiences and the time it takes to understand life.  That kind of education can't happen online and isolated, and it can't happen without discourse of a constructive kind among people of varied opinions and backgrounds.  Much like a scientific theory, dogma has be to tested against rhetoric and analysis.

We have failed students and society by selling them the notion that a degree is a means to an end...the end being career, money, and success.  Education didn't use to be thought of this way, and this viewpoint is a product of the last 40 years instead of how education was viewed for centuries.  Education was supposed to be training in thought and rhetoric, with the idea that thereafter, subject matter and knowledge could be acquired.  To put it in a modern context....education was building the platform for learning new applications as time progressed.  Think of ancient Greece, or Oxbridge, or the rise of the liberal arts institution at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries:  the idea was to turn out enlightened individuals who understand human nature and gain wisdom.  When we think of education in that context, it is not as important WHAT we study, as how we study it.  

As I begin the process of homeschooling both kids, this issue is very much on my mind.  As a result we will be focusing on literature, language, writing, analysis and critical thinking skills.  May I work to instill not so much knowledge as the process of acquiring that knowledge and ultimately, wisdom, both for my children and for me.