Standing On Principle in Education
In order to have any meaningful discussion on education we need to begin by understanding what education is and what it is not. Once we can do that we can see where and how the education system in our country has gone off the rails and can in fact hinder true education, then we can discuss how applying the American Principle to education itself can begin to correct it. So, let’s being.
Education is applied knowledge and it achieved by “having, doing, and being.” Information is “had” it is received from a source, whether that source is your parents, your friends, a book, a lecture, a teacher, a coach, a life experience, Diving Intervention, or really anything else. Once the information is had, it is then applied or “done”. This is the where the rubber meets the road so to speak and this step is vitally important because everything has to be tested. Truth is not invented or created by man, he only discovers it, information; however, in the form of thoughts, ideas, or belief systems, are invented by man. Not all information reflects truth, which is put into the world by God. In fact, a lot of information, heck the vast majority of it, might not be true at all. It is the application that allows us discover what is real and worth following and what is not real and worth abandoning. The more you meditate on and practice the information you have the more it becomes a part of you. When this happens you start to “become” it. It is only at this point that information becomes true knowledge. It is no longer theoretical and there is no longer any doubt, it becomes real.
Education has become such a precarious thing in our culture because both the application and the beingness of information have been removed from the educative process. We no longer encourage discovery. We no longer encourage testing. Theories are simply espoused and meditated on. This leads to an incorporation of such information into one’s outlook, psyche, and mental attitudes. The process is then repeated again and again and again. And each successive piece information can become a little less true. This leads to increasingly untrue and radical theories that are completely opposed to what actually is and can begin to threaten the very fabric of society, because any society that strays to far from truth eventually collapses. It is not truth which is in danger, but society and this is this is the first problem with the education system in our country. So many teachers now adays do not have any practical knowledge in what they teach. They have no success and (almost more importantly) no failures to their name. There are many many good teaches don’t get me wrong, but this problem is within the system itself. The system does not encourage trial and error, it simple demands students to conform.
The second problem with the education system is that it is mistaken from education itself. You should never actually stop learning. You should never stop acquiring information, testing it, and becoming it and yet so many people give up on learning when they are done with a “formal education”. How many people read books when they are out of college? How many people simply stop and languish in their “career”? Also, the awareness that teaches and the government’s education program are NOT the only sources of information is something that people are no longer even aware of. Parents, friends, and resources are so incredibly important. We have the whole internet now with experts in every field of human knowledge. You can learn anything from the greatest experts in any field in an instant for free now. Even the personality and experience of the of the teachers themselves are overlooked. Everything is standardized now. The difference between a teacher and a Teacher is not the diplomas or the credential it is there personality, it is there humanness that makes them good at their craft and memorable to their students.
The third problem with our countries education system and the biggest is that it does not simply disseminate information anymore. It now teaches and really molds people into a certain way of thinking. It does not encourage people to think critically, it does not teach people to think outside the box, and it does not ever teach skills anymore. Do students learn how to cook or do their taxes in today’s school system? Are you taught how to run a business? Are you taught how to crystalize a dream into a vision and how to follow that vision? The answer to all of this is “no”. It is unclear if this is a result of removing practicality from the education system or if it is something more malicious, but it doesn’t really matter because the result is the same. People find their capacity to think diminished as they go through our education system. They are literally worse off on a functional level leaving then arriving.
It is critical to understand that our intellect, our creativity, our ingenuity, and our ability to conceptualize all come from God. Any form of education must recognize the Divinity of Creation and actively seek to cultivate the gifts that God gave us. And, yes, enhancing them must be the active goal. There is no neutral ground. If your aim is not to enhance the gifts God gave you, then you are doing damage to them. Period. Any form of education that does not do this harms it’s own people and society and is in fact a crime against man and against God.
Our responsibly as American citizens is two fold. One, to take responsibility for our own education. We have to acquire knowledge and improve our capacity to think critically. We are all responsible for maintaining God’s gifts to us and no mater how much damage was done it is never to late to turn your knowledge and ability to think around. God can heal anything is you allow him to do so. Two, we have to bring practicality back to our educative system as a whole. So many people still go through our a standard education. We have to being to restore the concept of trial and error to the process. We have to encourage failure, which means a risk is taken, and getting back up after you fail. You only really fail when you quite.
We live in an information age, which is not a good. We need to be able to apply that information in a constructive way to enhance our understanding of what is true and this requires more that just technical information. We need morals and ethics. We need philosophy and creativity. We also need principles and virtues. We need to be the best version of ourselves, which means being a total person. Healthy in mind, body, and soul.