Weekly Thought – April 14, 2015
Fred highly regarded education. Unable to attend college, he spent a lifetime studying. Often when he spoke at colleges he laughed about having to wear a “choir robe” because he had no doctoral hood. He exemplified a true student who encouraged others in the pursuit of wisdom.
The BWFLI schedule is developing well. Please continue to pray for us as we begin the planning.
Education Matters
President John F. Kennedy, addressing an assemblage of Nobel laureates at the White House, and said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge assembled for a White House dinner since Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
Education is not solitary. One of the reasons we get together is to pool our knowledge and experience. The purpose isn’t competition, but coordination. Each of us in the room knows something that the others do not. The stimulating challenge is the sharing until you realize what you did not know.
Our political environment demonstrates the necessity of true education. In a cynical moment Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Politics is the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.” In today’s complex world this opinion is proven false.
Aristotle believed that proper governance depended on the education of the youth. But what they learn is critical. Through formal education, each generation can build on the knowledge of the prior. I believe this is only true if we accept the principles that the knowledge produced. If we deny the principles, then we are starting to reinvent the wheel. And the preparation needed for leadership is lacking.
Samuel Johnson said, “The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things. The power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine.” This is becoming increasingly difficult because our definition of good and evil are changing. We are losing the value of solid principles.
One of the major challenges for today’s youth is the correct understanding of the process from data to information to knowledge to wisdom. They are overloaded with data and know how to take the step to information, but stumble on the way to knowledge, and surely to wisdom. Education is not about teaching facts, but teaching us to think.
This week think about: 1) How serious am I am about on-going education? 2) What do I have in place to succeed as a life-long learner? 3) What am I reading right now that is growing me?
Words of Wisdom: “Education is not about teaching facts, but teaching us to think.”
Wisdom from the Word: “So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, ‘Indeed, this great nation is a very wise people.’”(Deuteronomy 4:6 NET Bible)