Author’s note: this is the first part in a mini-series on education, seeking to show the incredible value of it and equip us with the process toward achieving it, what our heart desires.
Here’s a professor at Columbia University who changed the face of American education in the 1950s, and the only reason he didn’t receive a diploma from Columbia is because he refused to take the P.E. class, swimming.
You gotta respect the man.
Nerds worldwide salute you, Mr. Mortimer J. Adler.
Mortimer Jerome is a symbol of education in America in that he is comical to some and honorable to others.
Real education in our country has been on a decline for a really long time, and it is well documented. Students used to study to achieve comprehensive knowledge, whereas now they are encouraged to specialize, to study only for a test or a paper, file that away, and never go back.
Literacy is much more than the skill to read.
College is, to most, the means to an end (a job), which is why most stop reading once they graduate.
Mark Twain once said, "The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read."
Reading, and true learning, are fundamental to being human.
Out of all the animals on the planet, only humans were given the git of self-aware consciousness. That gift comes with strings attached. With it comes responsibility to shape and hone the raw power God gave us.
Even Jesus had to grow in wisdom and knowledge.
In that worldview, the most fundamental calling of humanity is to pursue and achieve understanding, without which it’s impossible to live well; without which you’ll be frustrated and left to just follow everyone else.
You’ll look to country music for advice and understanding on relationships and why you can’t seem to be happy or why people are so weird or how come your girl or boyfriend left you. You’ll look to cheap entertainment to deliver to your soul the bread of life.
We need understanding.
One aspect of understanding is to acquire the concepts and information in the world and know how to categorize it properly. Without categories for thinking, we won’t be able to measure the value or truth of anything.
Another aspect of understanding is the skill and discipline to grasp a rational thought, detect an inference or discrimination. Without that, we miscommunicate and miss the point of everything.
We humans need categories for thinking and the skill of grasping rational thoughts.
Those don’t come easy.
Like a ship’s captain achieving mastery over the maps and waterways, we need a core competency in order to live well.
At school they taught us to study for a quick objective. Pass tests and finish papers and we were one step closer to a meaningful career. But we are all responsible. Nothing changes that fact.
How you manage that is up to you. We aren’t all born with wisdom, and we can’t all assume we can stumble upon it in the daily grind of our lives. Somewhere along the way we have to reach out and search for the truth, the path toward greatest success for our work, our families, our churches and civic clubs, etc.
What if someone said they could give you the cheat codes to life? You can know how to manage your mind, what makes you really happy, how to get out of a funk, what causes funks, and why things are the way they are?
Let’s dig into another mini-series on this, the topic of adult education.
Mortimer Adler once said, “Love without conversation is impossible.” Well, to the man who skipped P.E. class for another session in the library, he must have had one heck of a love life.