Treatise #5; A Truly Superb Education Part II

Dear Readers,

Here is the second half of my fifth treatise, the first half of which I posted a couple weeks ago. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Reading,
Dallin D. Shumway

P.S. Don't forget to comment if you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback that you would like to share.

Another purpose of education is to allow people to maintain their freedom. In my first treatise back in September, I used as an example the philosophy of a man whom I have grown to love for his outlook on the importance of quality education. This man is Dr. Ben Carson, whom I introduced a few paragraphs above.

Dr. Carson believes very strongly that an educated populace is essential for securing the freedom of any society.

He made this point in a speech he delivered at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, as quoted by me in my original treatise; The Intellectual Superstar. This is what he said; “...What will maintain our position in the world? The ability to [make] a 25 foot jump shot or the ability to solve a quadratic equation? We need to put the things into proper perspective.”

Dr. Carson did not mean that a nation can only maintain its freedom if its people are all mathematicians, but rather that an intellectual populace is a necessary component to liberty.

If you haven’t read this treatise, you can find it with the following link; http://teenagephilosoper.blogspot.com/2014/09/treatise-1-intellectual-superstar-sep.html

Plato understood this concept very well. He lived in a democracy; Ancient Athens. He taught the same idea that Dr. Carson teaches to the Athenians, explaining that because the citizens of the city made the laws (as is the case in a democracy), they needed to be educated. If any of them were ignorant, people who knew more than they would become tyrants and tell them what to do.

Think about it this way; Imagine a boy who is completely uneducated about property rights and ownership, and who doesn’t know what stealing is. This boy does some work around the house and earns some money. This money is his property; he earned it. He decides he wants to take it to the store to buy a LEGO set. On the way to the store, an older girl in the neighborhood, who knows the boy has never learned about stealing and ownership, decides to take advantage of his ignorance. She walks up to him and says; “Hey! Don’t you know that it’s Wednesday?” Taken aback, the boy responds, “Why is that important?” “Well,” says the girl, “on Wednesday, all younger children are suppose to give their money to older children. If you don’t give me your money you’ll go to jail because you broke the law.” This boy doesn’t have the common sense to see the preposterousness of such a statement due to his lack of education. Wanting to do the right thing, the boy hands over his money, and is now deprived of his LEGO’s and the fun that he could have had.

Truly superb education doesn’t neglect sound political principles and philosophy.

Another purpose of education, perhaps the most important, is the ability for each and everyone person to fulfill the measure of their creation.

We all want to make the world a better place, and we all have our very own unique gifts, talents and abilities with which we can work to create a better world. If our education fails to give us these abilities, or allow us to find them, then it has, as I said at the beginning, failed to fulfill its purpose.

The general consensus of today, as I have already said, is to get an education to get a job. But, could it be that there is more to being on this planet than just having a job to stay alive?

If so, then when and where should we enable ourselves to accomplish this mission? We seem to think that childhood is where we should prepare for adulthood, at least in terms of career preparation and general life skills (things like how to care for oneself, as well as good manners, how to interact with people, etc.). For the same reasons, this should also be the time that we learn the things we will need to be able to fulfill our mission here on earth.

If education is meant to prepare children for adulthood then a truly superb education will prepare students to be effective in fulfilling their purpose.

Finally, education should not neglect the development of personal character. Some would argue that the home should be the base for teaching character. I agree with this, but that does not mean that the same principles shouldn’t be instilled in school.

The system that I propose to teach personal character in academic settings comes from what I have been able to receive through completing the Leadership Education Mentoring Institute (LEMI) program; In these classes, students and mentors talk about the importance of what they call their “core”. In his book A Thomas Jefferson Education Dr. Oliver DeMille, renowned speaker and writer on education, speaks of what he calls the first phase of education. It takes place during early childhood, from about age 0 to 9ish (usually), and is called “core phase.” This is when the core of our character is developed. The core is the very center of an object. In many cases the strength of the object is determined by the strength of its core.

In LEMI classes, which students will not ideally be taking unless they are passed the core phase and presumably have built a firm core for themselves, the mentors and students honor each other’s own personal beliefs, and share what they believe with each other out of their own “core book.” A core book is the place that a person gets their core from. For religious people, it often comes in the form of scripture. For non-religious people, there are numerous texts that have been written throughout the ages that are a wonderful resource from which to derive core building principles.

In this way, the student’s cores are first cultivated outside of class, studying their core books in a home environment. This is, no doubt, the right place to start, but there is no reason why education systems can’t encourage students to share their core values in an academic life, and encourage them to keep developing them.

On a societal level, core development is truly the key element to prevent world tragedies from occurring.

Remember the vacuum? Imagine the kind of life that someone with this kind of education would be able to live.

A life like this would fill any vacuum. It would be full of purpose and meaning, enlightenment and intelligence, and would make for a very satisfying existence here on earth.

Sadly, too many of today’s adults are unable to fill their vacuums because their education was inept. Despite these failures, there are several things that, if implemented into any education system, will begin to eliminate these shortcomings.

To begin with, society should never assume that there is a one-size-fits-all education system. Let us take a bird’s eye view of our modern public, and even private, education systems in America to more fully explore this idea;

The student learns by having information spewed forth to them by a teacher/professor at the front of the room, and by fulfilling homework outside of class that the teacher/professor assigns.

During the class time, they are surrounded by fellow students, who may or may not be contributing to their learning. Once they learn the information, they are expected to remember it until the end of the semester, at which time a test is taken. The purpose of this test is to see that the students have learned the material. If they pass the test, they have learned the material, and they are prepared to face the storms of life, forever remembering what they learned from the class. If they don’t pass the test, they have not mastered the material and will suffer later in life because of it.

Perhaps this philosophy is the best way for some people to learn, maybe even most people. But, this method of regurgitation will not work for all students. How can it? Human’s are diverse in their way of thinking and learning from person to person. While some students may learn best surrounded by peers, some might learn best when they are on their own. And while some might learn best in a rigid, structured environment where the teacher’s lesson is taught unhindered, some might learn best in a more relaxed creative environment (I have discovered for myself that I learn best in a more rigid environment, but I have also worked with students that do much better when they are free to be more creative). And while some might learn best doing what a teacher tells them, some might learn best working with their parents to find the best education for them personally.

Therefore a serious problem is created when legislatures attempt to confine students to one kind of education system. Therefore, the first thing to be done is to insure that students are not confined to one system.

Here is another very fundamental tool that may always be relied on when all else fails; reading. Read, read, read, and read some more.

Reading is the thing that both L’Amour and Dr. Carson had in common. Reading develops our brain’s, giving us the capacity to form conclusions. Reading enlightens us and teaches us. It gives us the opportunity to examine other cultures and people, learning from their mistakes and successes. Finally, it teaches us fundamental truths that will lead us to live purposeful virtuous lives, fulfilling the mission that has been given us.

The next tool; offer breadth in education.Consider the great difficulty that a person would have in discovering what their mission is if they are denied the opportunity to examine a smorgasbord of different subjects. “Breadth” was a word that L’Amour used to describe what a truly great education should look like in the first chapter of Education of a Wandering Man.

Going off of that, offer depth to education. Once a student, having breadth, has found a subject that they are particularly fond off, they should have the opportunity to explore that subject, enlightening their minds with their findings and discovering if perhaps the subject they are studying has any bearing on their unique mission in life.

And never forget, the development of one’s own personal character and integrity, or core.

An education like the one I have outlined gives great power to its recipient. Consider the unhappy state of those subject to the individual whose education contained everything I have outlined, with the exception of the core development aspect. The power of this kind of education will be used for good or for ill, all depending on the individual’s core strength.  

I will even go so far as to say that this kind of education, minus the core development aspect, will raise up students that will shape history in a redundancy of the 20th Century, only it will be much more catastrophic. An education like this without core development will create another generation of hitlers, stalins, and moas. These men had power. People that get the education that I have outlined will also have power. These men had weak cores, but people who follow my education module will have strong ones.

I hope that this work has broadened your perspective. If you’re still a student, take advantage of the opportunities placed before to implement the suggestions I’ve made. If you’re no longer a student, remember this; when you stop learning, you stop growing. So don’t let your consumption of knowledge stop. Develop and maintain a strong core, enlighten yourself with the abundance of knowledge around you, train yourself to be a good citizen who knows how to maintain freedom, and find a purpose for your existence.

I promise anyone you decides to take this path a journey of pure delight.

Thank you for reading,

Dallin D. Shumay

Treatise #5; A Truly Superb Education Part I

Dear Readers,

Here is the first part of treatise number five. I say "the first part" because I have decided that I will be publishing treatises a section at a time so as not to overwhelm readers with too much wisdom to take in at one time.

My plans for what to do with this blog have changed, and I have decided that I will work from now until the end of March to create a 6th treatise. I will publish a 7th at the end of April.

Happy Reading!
Dallin D. Shumway

P.S. Don't forget to tell your friends about this awesome blog. I want to share my ideas with anyone who is open to receive them.

There is a period of time, very near the beginning of one’s life, where crucial directions are taken. A friend of mine recently gave an object lesson about this period of time, using a yardstick to illustrate. A yardstick has 36 inches on it. If a man were to live to be 72, then his life could be represented using 36 inches, each inch representing two years.

My friend pointed to a spot on the yardstick; the 6th inch. Then, running his finger up near the 9th inch he said; “There is a period of time in every person’s life from about here, to here, which, though seemingly small, is perhaps the most crucial.”

He was talking about the importance of making wise decisions as a teenager. Today, I’m going to expand on his idea, by highlighting a few more significant years on the yardstick. I’d like to start at about 2.5 inches (five years), and move all the way up to about 12.5 (25 years). These inches, like the ones my friend pointed out, though seemingly insignificant when compared to the rest of our lives, are the most crucial, for these are years where we obtain our education.

Education is an essential part of our socioeconomic structure. Each of has (or at least should have) a vested interest in it. Even the retired 80-year-old man should have a vested interest in it because he still relies on the services needed to obtain the necessities of life, as well as everyday enjoyments. He cannot have these things if the younger generation does not have the education that will allow them to create said services. Thus the 80-year-old man has an interest in education.

If everyone has a vested interest in education, how ironic that there are many fundamental problems in the American education system that go unnoticed.

In mid-December, I published a treatise that discussed a phenomenon that is prevalent in adults in today’s society. I call this phenomenon the internal “vacuum.” It is the desire to have meaning in life. I encourage you to go and take a look at this treatise if you haven’t read it already; http://teenagephilosoper.blogspot.com/2014/12/treatise-3-making-achievements-part-i.html

Just as a review for those that have read this post, the Vacuum is best described using, as an example, what I call “Monday-Friday Syndrome.” This is the daily chore of dragging oneself out of bed Monday through Friday, at an hour earlier than we would like, getting dressed, and driving to a building where we will sit at a desk all day doing something that we absolutely hate.

The first problem with American education is this; it does not give us the ability to continually fill our Vacuum’s as we go through life. Education exists to prepare us for life as an adult. If it fails to put in our hands the tools needed to live a life of meaning, it has not adequately prepared us for life, and therefore has failed in its purpose.

To eliminate these problems there are a number of things that should be provided by education, and things that should be remembered by all people as we are seeking our education.

One of these things, which fails into the latter category is what I call, the Great Myth. The Great Myth is this;

Wake up each day during the months of September to May and go to school for 12 whole years of your life. If you do this, get passing grades, and graduate high school after years of formal schooling you will be educated.

A simplified way of saying this is; school = education.

This is a fallacy that throws many students, particularly while they are in the secondary and higher phases of education into an unhealthy pattern of going about learning.

Too many individuals have succeeded at life without a formal education, and too many individuals have failed at life with a formal education, for the Great Myth to be anything more than a fallacy.

If the Great Myth were really the Great Truth, then it would be impossible for anyone without a history of success in formal schooling to be able to achieve any kind of success.

A powerful example of this idea is the childhood of one of my personal heros, Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson. He said of himself; “I was the worst student in my whole fifth-grade class.” He was miserably failing his studies, and his mother, who was single and very young (she married at age 13) worried greatly about him. He and his brother would spend their time in the evenings staring at what I like to call “the idiot box.” Look in the footnote if you want a dictionary definition of that term.

Wasting his time away on television, and having his grades fall dangerously low, his mother finally came up with a solution; limit her boy’s TV time firstly, but second, and perhaps most importantly, replace the lost screen time with reading. She told her boys; “From now on you can watch three television programs a week. Additionally, you will need to read two books every week and submit to me a report for each one.” The solution required her to be courageous and stand up to her two sons, who were angry and indignant about this new rule. But she carried it through.

This reading program that Dr. Carson’s mother set up, was a very important component to his education. Yet, it was not part of his formal schooling. And it was precisely the new way in which he began to spend his time after his mother’s new rule that saved his education.

His grades began to steadily improve and he was at the top of his class in just a few years time. Graduating from Yale and The University of Michigan’s health program, Dr. Carson has achieved very high levels of success, including being a best-selling author, successful speaker, political activist and a world renowned neurosurgeon.

For the latter, Dr. Carson was the first neurosurgeon to find a way to remove an entire hemisphere of a human brain without killing, or even severely inhibiting the life of his patient. More importantly, he was the first neurosurgeon to successfully separate siamese twins, conjoined at the head. He is also a renowned thought leader on education and politics in America.

Had his mother insisted on just leaving things as they were and hoping that the standardized education system that he was in would eventually take care of his inability to learn, it is very likely that he never would have made the contributions to society that he is so beloved for.

On the other hand, consider all of the many people who complete the full, standard, all-American education module, and fail miserably at life.

If this is a hard concept for you to grasp, then go to your local prison and talk to the inmates about their educational background. Yes, you will certainly find high school dropouts, but I guarantee that you will also talk to many people that at least started college, as well as people who finished college, and perhaps even a few who went on to earn a doctorate degree.

A college degree does not guarantee that you’ll succeed, nor does the lack of a high school diploma doom you to failure.

The second thing that should be remembered is the true purpose of education.

For many Americans, the years that they spend obtaining their education can be very grueling. The main incentive that pushes them through these first roughly 12.5 inches on the yardstick is the belief that they won’t be able to support themselves and a family without a decent education. While this is true in many cases, this idea usually goes even farther than that to say that this is the only reason to get an education. This is a gross misconception, and it’s one of the biggest reasons why so many adults feel an emptiness inside.

Louis L'Amour, who dropped out of high school during his sophomore year at age 15, received one of the best educations out of all the people that I’ve had the opportunity to study. His education was found through reading books, and living and working all over the world, and reading books, and rubbing shoulders with all kinds of different people in his various work environments, and reading more books.

Eventually, his reading allowed him to develop an outstanding skill in creative writing, and thus have a means of livelihood. He has become one of America’s most beloved novelists.  Readers all over the world love his books. But, this wasn’t the biggest blessing that came from his education. His biggest blessing was the enlightenment that he received. In his novel Fair Blows the Wind (one that I thoroughly enjoyed), he said; “The well of learning is one that never ceases to flow and we have only to drink of its waters.”

L’Amour, most assuredly, could have easily given up on his education when financial hardships hit his family during the early 1900’s, at which time he chose to leave school. But, interestingly enough, the most important reason for why he left school when he was only 15 was because he didn’t want the education it was giving him. In the first chapter of his memoir Education of a Wandering Man, he explains why he made the decision to leave the standardized education system; “I left for two reasons, economic necessity being the first of them. More importantly was that school was interfering with my education.”

Wow! What a statement to make! School interfering with education? For L’Amour personally, he felt incomplete in the public school system. He left it, and became a hobo which, at the time, did not refer to a beggar who did no work as it often does today, but rather to a person who had no home, but traveled all over the place and worked, helping people that needed extra hands to get a job done. Farming is a good example of the work that hobos did. Whereas now many people view homeless people as a strain on our economy, the hobos back then were essential to it.

As L’Amour was going about the country, and sailing to places beyond, he took advantage of the resources around him; books! And he enlightened his mind in an amazing way, going on to become wildly successful as a writer.

No one who gets a truly great education will turn around and say; “Gee, I wish I hadn’t received that enlightenment. I should have just remained in the dark.” Granted, people who complete graduate school and then don’t use their degree might feel bad that they went to so much work to get a certification that they aren’t using, but that’s for practical reasons (like having a pile of student loan debt and not having the job they were counting on to pay it off quickly), not necessarily because they don’t like what they learned.

To be continued on February 25th. Thanks for reading...........

My Apologies

Dear Readers,

I am writing this post for a couple of reasons:
First; I want to apologize that there was not a treatise published last week available for you all to read. This was due to a severe lack of time in which to finish writing it. I will have the treatise for January published no later than Wednesday night of next week, on the 11.
Second; I must inform you all that, once this treatise is out, it will probably be the only one I publish for a couple of months. I am a avid participant in the Utah Mock Trial Program for junior high's and high schools, and the season of 2015 is officially underway. This is always the busiest time of year for me. I am also participating in my homeschooling program's advanced drama class and our first official rehearsal was yesterday.

All told, I am thinking that I will not have time to write anything new for this blog until the end of March when mock trial and my play will be over. I had originally planned to make February's treatise the last one I published, but I am thinking that I should scale back even farther.

I am going to miss writing treatises very much, but I am going to make an effort to publish, here and there, things that I've written in the past.

Thanks for being wonderful readers. I look forward to writing to you again soon.

Dallin D. Shumway