The Value of Virtue and the Failure of Education
Updated: Dec 29, 2024
Article Introduction by A Kung Fu Master
The path of knowledge is a very difficult journey... Many stumble, some fall, but the true warrior rises, tempered by adversity. In this age of information overload, true education is not merely the acquisition of facts, but the cultivation of wisdom.
The ancient masters understood the power of failure. They saw it not as a defeat, but merely a stepping stone on the path to greater virtue. Likewise, the modern scholar must embrace failure as a necessary part of the learning process.
In this exploration of education and failure, we will delve into the heart of these timeless truths. We will examine the role of the educator, the expectations of the student, and the ultimate goal of human education: to live a life of meaning, wellbeing and purpose.
The Article Itself
An educated person is also regarded as a cultured person... not necessarily wise at times. -- Dr. S. K. Pachauri
Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. -- Denis Waitley
The idea of normality has a very basic premise: that one should follow it if they wish to be socially acceptable and liked.
Regardless of the activity that is considered normal, if you follow it, you will be liked by your peers and in general, even if that norm is immoral or at least negative in some way.
The education system also has a basic, similar imperative: to teach its students to preserve, create, or destroy norms, depending on what those norms are. That is often done without the training of the critical thinking skills, necessary for students to question their authorities. That is because it is not normal nor socially acceptable to question those forced by states and government ministers to be your superiors.
It provides feedback on how things should and should not be done. For most, it has 12 years to teach the next generation of citizens what is appropriate, what should be encouraged, and what should be condemned. Its role is simple: to shape the mind of the student in accordance with the local ideal, whatever that may be. The purpose of doing so is to engineer society per the desires of central or local authorities.
However, what may be defined as the local ideal, might not necessarily be ideal or even accurate with reality itself. Meaning, the virtue of education could easily fail itself when what students learn will not help them be virtuous nor competent in their respective societies.
For many, education has partially failed in fulfilling the functionality of helping them partake in the world beyond it... That is, at the very least when, it comes to basic human dignity in interactions with the world. It is through respect that we foster healthy, harmonious communities, necessary for our wellbeing.
The archetype of the teacher is no longer the authority that dictates students what to do beyond doing homework and getting good grades. The world itself has drastically changed in terms of virtue, and barbaric behavior, under the excuse of liberty, has largely become the new norm across the world and cyberspace. The suffering of others matters not to many, in a world whose humanity is unaware of its gift of compassion.
It seems that the education system has forgotten that it is there not only to provide people with knowledge but also with an example of how people should behave and interact with one another. as even teachers may fail applying rage in a way that helps them teach, instead of participating in mutual traumatization.
Grades, are important in terms of evaluation, but as Socrates may say:
Virtue is the nursing-mother of all human pleasures, who, in rendering them just, renders them also pure and permanent.
The quality of being morally-good, or virtue, is the very thing that allows us to function with each other. Since we need to function with each other to survive, we need to be morally good in our conduct and to behave in ways that do not harm our respective physical and mental wellbeing.
A person is also measured by their capacity for "humanity," of being able to act with respect and tolerance. When we fail to respect and tolerate each other, we fail in functioning as a society, leading to increased corruption and intellectual hermits who are best at helping others with their sage insight.
Additionally, the problem with contemporary education is the fact that anything can be found and learned online. This further brings the decline of the pre-digital institutions of old. Because of that and many other reasons, the value of orthodoxy has decreased, along with its authorities, the teachers, that represent it.
Other than basic human dignity, there is little opposition to the justification of "I can do and say whatever I want." This over-emphasis on freedom complicates reality by the fact that we never live in a vacuum and need to consider each other to the extent of our own wellbeing. Therefore, limiting our own freedom using conduct and virtue allows us greater wellbeing.
Therefore, not only should we care for our emotions on the regular, but also for the emotions of others.
Beforehand, there were the religious institutions whose authority was left unquestioned; there are still those nowadays but they're not as powerful in terms of complete fanaticism, which indicates their functional problems in the first place.
These institutions served as the ultimate justification of civilized conduct:
Be kind to another,
Respect the authorities,
and you will not be punished for your misconduct.
Thus, the motive for such conduct was the fear of punishment, which nowadays has been solved by democracy and by the freedom of expression.
Should this freedom be limited in the name of civilized conduct? Not at all, but it should indeed be preferable that personal freedoms will not be used for the severity of one's or others mental health, as that would only hinder our very own independence.
And where does such responsibility for wellbeing lie, if not in the very education system that is there to teach us how to navigate in society? To teach them not only to be smart, but also civilized? To enjoy learning, but also to be nice? To teach history and math but also dignity and tolerance?
As long as such things will not be taught, people will resume suffering unnecessarily by another's excuse of liberty. The only other way around it is to become tougher and compromise our own ability to enjoy a good life.
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