Society ought to look beyond the sciences (nature/knowledge) and mechanics (work/arts) in its education and civics (humanity/citizenship). Almost always, when the subject is broached, the purpose of education in the world is currently related to some professional context that will provide for the student a better income, and higher prestige in job selection than day laborers who without significant formal education will perform ordinary assignments in serving public needs. These latter are presumed to relate to a few days or months of training in skills that presumably require little in formal education. The two groupings are not really that far apart when one accents the historic uses of education, accents that may have been muted. Historically a person was not presumed to be educated unless there was cultivated a pattern for clear thinking and adequate knowledge about how nature and life function; a grasp of values relating to self, persons and society; and, an attitude of continued learning after formal education is closed. Life-long learning is a major objective of formal education. Some self-taught persons do find it in the activation of the desire to learn that is normal to persons. Education is first for sophisticating (in the right sense of the term) the self. As a farmer, or worker on the line, or secretary, or chef, we want education of self.
Currently the nations of the world are facing an almost impossible task in trying to improve the lives of citizens without adequate values. Before me are articles from leading publications on what is happening in some of the leading educational institutions in America. The stories of rape, alcoholism, cheating, and other violations are tragic and repulsive. Rape in dormitories, death from excessive drinking, and the general disregard of responsible authorities, challenge whatever system is at work. Then we discover that the concepts of ethics and morals are no longer taken as a factor of education, and may, in fact, be resisted when the matter comes up as a response to an obvious need. One article ended: Pity the young men and women who are left to make their way through this minefield on their own. The sordid story is left to lawyers who, with parental support, take institutions to court to protect the student’s personal rights to do as he or she pleases. Institutional committees, rather than address how to include values and civility in education, spend time in how to counter litigation. Christian education includes values and integrity.
I am grateful that my education included values. At West High School (public) in Akron, Ohio I was challenged in Civics courses about values, and what is good for society. In two Christian Colleges I learned a great deal about various continua from civility to righteousness, much of which applied as much to a pagan society as a spiritually oriented one. We had a few rules to honor. Ethics were important in some of my courses at the University of Minnesota under Professor William Howell, and at the University of Washington under Professor Dominic LaRusso, the chairman of my doctoral committee. There were others, but I remember the drama of ethics these profs engaged. In one course, the allegory was of a woman who lied. The students, except for me, voted for her conduct because she presumed a favorable end. Alone, I objected among thirty graduate students, so to consider an alternative not included. Some students, warmed to the argument. Years later I was asked to debate a Dean of a State University, a man I liked but with whom I disagreed. He opposed any application of personal values to courses at his university. He believed that values were a matter of opinion governed by legal action. He had no answer to broken lives, to greed, to violations of right or wrong, except to courtrooms guided by social interests and currency. From his arguments there was no personal responsibility except to order of law. He believed educators should not deal with the education of human ethical wholeness, or to advocate or oppose the good for and to any people without their definitions and requests. Morality was personal not general, and not revealed. Even as I edit this Page, high school administrations are faced with problems in their schools of language (swearing), dress, (suggestive or bizarre, as in crude T shirt words), drugs (illegal substances) and conducts (especially bullying) between angry children, often supported by parents unclear about morals and values, but escaping through freedom rights. Even the general public has succumbed. There is a strong argument that without God, one’s morality is human, varied with individuals. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020