VIRTUOUS EDUCATION

Teaching Virtue: The Merits of a Liberal Education

Seth B. Williams

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A Virtuous Education

Our educational system faces challenges today on a scale far larger than ever before. An article in the Atlantic Monthly noted that since the recession, post-secondaryeducation funding has been cut in 38 states, and in many cases those cuts will exceed 20% (Weissmann, 2013). Furthermore, the media has changed the way new generations look at the world as information flows readily through the World Wide Web. People are to quick to follow the crowd in hyperspace or on the television. With the advent of tweets, Google, and Facebook, education has been compromised with more and more emphasis on facts and filling heads rather than training us to think. Alan Simpson, former president of Vassar College, agreed saying, So far as knowledge is concerned, the record is ambiguous. It is sufficiently confused for the fact-filled freak who excels in quiz shows to have passed himself off in some company as an educated man, (Simpson, 1961, p. 473). In order to reinvigorate our educational system we need to rely on the fundamentals of a liberal education; namely gaining self-worth, developing free thought, and forming a strong moral code. One of the fundamental values of an education is earning a sense of self-worth. Education is a process of personal growth. A truly educated person spends much of his time reflecting and seeking out answers from within, not blindly scooping up facts supplied by whoever shouts loudest. If we follow the opinions and patterns of others, we would find ourselves carbon copies of our circumstances. Alexander Hamilton, an illegitimate child from the Caribbean would have never become the first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789. Martin Luther King Jr. a black boy from Atlanta, Georgia, would have never delivered a sermon in Washington D.C. in 1963 and become the leader in the

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American civil rights movement. If we can see beyond our circumstances and come to understand our self-worth, as these to men did, a world of opportunity opens up, and we become contributors. The American philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841) was a great proponent of understanding self worth. In his essay Self Reliance, he writes: Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connexion of events. Great men have always done so and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. (Emerson, 1841, p. 111) It is almost impossible to trust ourselves if we do not understand how to value ourselves. Only through marveling at the work of our own hands can we appreciate our value. Emerson exhorts us to trust ourselves so we can respond to that iron string that vibrates within us; our confidence is something that is strum with greater ferocity as we learn to trust ourselves. Only through this trust can we understand our personal worth. Developing a strong sense of self-worth requires testing our mettle, which comes from us devoting ourselves to something and doggedly pursuing it. Bill Cunningham, a fashion photographer for the New York Times, has spent over fifty years taking pictures of New Yorks best dressed. At the age of eighty-three he can still be seen pedaling his bicycle around the Big Apple snapping photos for the Grey Lady. The man is devoted to his craft and understands his worth (Bill Cunninghams New York, 2010). That same

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level of devotion is asked of us by a great devotee of education: Sir Francis Bacon. This seventeenth century English politician and philosopher offered the following advice, Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man, (Bacon, 1597, p. 22). In order to understand our self-worth, we must do as Bacon suggests and doggedly pursue reading, conferring with others, and writing. Each allows us to think outside our circumstances and go beyond them. Perhaps the greatest boon of understanding self-worth is that it leads to free and independent thinking. Thought is one of the most desirable features of mankind and one of the most easily forgotten. It is easy for us to succumb to the pundits, opinions, and preachers of our day (it is far easier to do that than think for ourselves). Simpson claimed that a well rounded man is easily rolled about by the didactic claims of others, unless he invests himself very deeply in a field of study and personal understanding (Simpson, 1961, p. 477). In order to develop the ability to see through the smog of societys dictates, we must look at all things with skepticism. Simpson points out that The method of using doubt as an examiner is a familiar one among scholars and scientists, but it is also the best protection which a citizen has against the cant and humbug that surround us (Simpson, 1961, p. 474). Looking at things objectively is not just the duty of the learned, it is the duty of every man and woman; when we adhere to that, what we do discover becomes personal and part of what we believe. The skeptic is not a disbeliever, but some one who wants to know and believe for his or her self.

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Promoting this kind of thinking can be developed in our education system by presenting students with opportunities to solve problems as they think analytically. As students are presented with other viewpoints, the opposition fosters the opportunity for them to think for themselves. Simply presenting facts and ideas that oppose one another could lead to students choosing the path of least resistance. Each teacher must pose the question why? to students, so each student can develop their own reasons. Let those reasons be based on personal faith, experience, creed, or want, but there must be reasons based on something. George Orwell (1936), English author and political commentator, recounted a feeling of obligation that he had when he was serving as a police officer in Burma, he said A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things (Orwell, 1936, p. 410). (Sahib is a name given to members of the British military and police officers in the empire.) Orwell could not do what he felt was right within a critical situation; thereby, he was obliged by a mob to act like a sahib. His pride prevented him from doing what he would have preferred, and that which would have been unpopular; in other words, he became a slave to the ideas of others. Throughout the piece, Shooting an Elephant, Orwell expresses his own views, but in the end, he succumbs to peer pressure. He did not allow himself to rise above that pressure. Once above peer pressure, we must stand upon a firm moral code. The worlds laws and religions have come to define what is morally correct, and even those who wax apoplectic at the very mention of religion acknowledge that there is a right and a wrong. It does not matter whether individuals are Christian or Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist, liberal or conservative, engaged or apathetic, there are certain values that are

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universally accepted as good. These values include charity, tolerance, honor, and integrity. Educated men and women can easily toss virtues aside and forget them. Simpson remarked, We do not really believe that a college is doing its job when it is simply multiplying the number of educated scoundrels, hucksters, and triflers, (Simpson, 1961, p. 476). Schools can and should instill these values into their students as students are encouraged to think for themselves. Emerson observed, He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind, (Emerson, 1841, p. 112). What is most important is not whether something is defined as good, but whether the good can be felt and observed. Therefore, teachers must present all the facts in any discussion, good and bad, and then ask why. Reading and discussing Sophocles, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Locke, Ghandi, King, Hamilton, Jefferson, or Gladstone can have a profound effect on a personal moral code if students are allowed to interpret the text through the integrity of their own thoughts. When a strong educational cannon is present, teachers do not need to spell out right and wrong; they can let the students sound it out themselves. A teacher is a facilitator and a reviewer, not a preacher from the lectern. With numerous religions and political views teaching morals can scare faculty; it shouldnt. Teachers are to provide situations in which students can thrive, not spoon feed them. Coming to terms with a personal moral code can be difficult, but Simpson argued that it is needed: An indispensable mark of the modern educated man is the kind of versatile,

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flexible mind that can deal with new and explosive conditions (Simpson, 1961, p. 476). As the world changes, virtues must not be forgotten, but developed in the home, chapel, mosque or synagogue, and in our schools as well. A truly virtuous education is one that can teach men not what to think, but rather how to think. Education should help students believe the things that they feel are inherently right. Education is able to place our capacity for growth and understanding in an important, not prideful light. It is able to supplies us with a morality that is personal, developed through our own pondering. Bacon taught that, histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend, (Bacon, 1597, p. 22). All things of merit in society spawn from personal thought and consideration and that is the product of a virtuous education.

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References

Bacon, F. (1601). Of studies. In W. Brugger, D.Hammond, M.K. Hartvigsen, A. Papworth & R. Seamons (Eds.), The Way of Wisdom (2009). Rexburg, ID: BYUIdaho. Retrieved January 11, 2013, from http://www2.byui.edu/Anthology/Studies.pdf Emerson, R.W. (1841). Self reliance. In W. Brugger, D. Hammond, M.K Hartvigsen, A. Papworth, & R. Seamons (Eds.), The Way of Wisdom (2009). Rexburg, ID: BYUIdaho. Retrived January 19, 2013 from http://ilearn.byui.edu Gefter, P. (Producer), & Press, R. (Director). (2010). Bill Cunninghams New York [Motion Picture]. United States: Zeitgeist Films. Orwell, G. (1936). Shooting an elephant. In W. Brugger, D. Hammond, M.K. Hartvigsen, A. Papworth & R. Seamons (Eds.), The Way of Wisdom (2009). Rexburg, ID: BYU-Idaho. Retrived January 24, 2013, from http://www2.byui.edu/Anthology/Elephant.pdf. Simpson, A. (1961). The marks of an educated man. In W. Brugger, D. Hammond, M.K. Hartvigsen, A. Papworth & R. Seamons (Eds.), The Way of Wisdom (2009). Rexburg, ID: BYU-Idaho. Retrived January 18, 2013, from http://ilearn.byui.edu. Weissmann, J. (2013, January 23). The 38 states that have slashed higher education spending. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-38-states-that-haveslashed-higher-education-spending/267427/

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