Education, Revisited
What is the best form of education? It lies in how we define our greatest aspirations, as individuals and as a human community.
If we are to have any hope of answering the question, “What is the best form of education?” we have to first ask ourselves something more basic. We need to identify and agree on its underlying purpose. “What is an education for, exactly?” It may seem simple, but it is not, because the answer invariably gets caught up in a too-often heated — and complex — discussion of our values, and our purpose, in life.
First, a history lesson.
Things we have been taught formally over the millennia have followed one of three basic arcs. One of these sought our indoctrination in the name of religion, like early Christian scholars; military prowess, like Spartan warriors; or governance, like communist leaders. Another was committed to building our proficiency in the name of craft, like the medieval guilds; or productivity, like the Industrial Age factory workers. And a third attempted to scratch the itch of our curiosity with critical thinking in the name of inquiry, exploration and discovery — of both our inner and outer worlds — like the constellation of ancient Greek scholars who invented philosophy, dialectics, virtue, and logic, among other things.
