What education we need today in our best of the worlds? In French, the word “éducation” is an anglicisme. It’ll be better to say instruction. Education comes from the Latin ex-ducere, guider, conduire hors.
Instruction comes from the Latin instructio, “action d’adapter, de disposer”.
In 11th century Andalousia, Muslim knights, plus to traditional military skills, had to be trained in public speaking and in poetry.
In the 18th century, education included Ancient Greek and Latin.
In the 19th century, an educated man was supposed to be at ease in arts, music, literature, history, a bit of sciences, and certainly in wines and cuisine. Good manners were a necesssary condition.
Nowadays, a philosophy professor who can’t tweet or blog, will be considered illiterate.
A relative of mine, professor of biology at a prestigious american university, an intelligent person, has no idea who is Beaumarchais, has never read “Faust”, but is consideredby his friends and colleagues as a well educated intellectual. Does modern education aim to give young people a profession for living or to prepare them for the real world in a wider sense – to develop their social skills, capability for adaptation, tolerance, team work, submission to political correctness and often hypocrisy?
Dr. Hazanov:
Education is critical in terms of allowing a young individual to be inspired, to be taught, and most importantly to think and express him-/herself freely and independently. I believe that the greatest ideas are those that are meant to generate discomfort, to create controversy and bring society to its knees.
I currently attend what a learned individual would consider a prestigious university in the United States, an incredibly pre-professional place. Here, I spend my free time sitting at a coffee shop with a good friend that thinks like me, discussing certain topics that would send a very intelligent person back into the recesses of their mind to question their purpose at university. I came into this academic institution with a very pre-professional mindset, not ever once believing that I could be shown anything that I hadn’t encountered before–some may call it confidence, others ignorance. However, I very quickly sat back and looked around me, realizing that although many of these intelligent students were academically talented, they were not equipped with the mechanisms that would allow them to push the boundaries of their skill or the boundaries of their own purpose. This is a different type of education that lies in the corners and crevices of academia, areas of knowledge that are normally looked over by the herd mentality that has possessed many of these students. It is easy to approach learning in a check-list fashion in order to “acquire an all-inclusive education”, but in reality it all it begins with is becoming aware and picking your head up. Education should aim to do this–put more emphasis on critical thinking, becoming aware, and appreciating the past but all the while trying to create the modern age. Making students more aware of the philosophy of education and its role as an approach to life is a good starting point.
Thank you for calling this matter into attention–it seems as if the past has shown us something that we can learn from.
Thank you very much.How right you are.
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