The Dangers of Education
Almost 2,500 years after his death, scholars and historians still study the philosophy of Socrates. Since we have no existing writings from the Greek teacher, we are indebted for the most part to his student Plato for preserving his wisdom, knowledge and understanding of what constitutes the good life. His remarkable career was cut short when he was arrested and condemned to death for trying to expand the minds of the youth in Athens in 399 B.C. The death of Socrates gives credence to the view that teaching can be hazardous to your health, especially if that teaching goes against the popular currents of the day.
Socrates wasn’t the only one whose teaching career came to a premature end. Galileo, often called the “father” of modern science, championed the findings of the astronomer Copernicus that the earth and the planets in our solar system rotate around the sun, a heretical doctrine at the time. In 1615 the Church investigated Galileo’s theory and found it to be totally contrary to Scripture, and his teaching was condemned. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest. In today’s world he would have been ridiculed or possibly even fired for teaching kids theories that challenged them to think outside the box.
Teachers, like prophets, are tolerated by their contemporaries when they teach what people feel comfortable with and what is popularly accepted. But when teachers stretch students to think across the lines of cherished opinions, well, that makes them fair game for all kinds of criticisms or even worse.
During the Middle Ages innovative ideas were frowned upon. The culture was stuck in a kind of intellectual ghetto that dismissed new concepts or teachings that might challenge or expose the weaknesses of the handed-down religious and political traditions. Education consisted of rote memorization that represented the understandings of thinkers who lived hundreds or even thousands of years earlier, that is, as long as those ideas didn’t contradict prevailing religious views. There existed a belief that whatever was worth knowing was already known and academic instruction didn’t venture far beyond established boundaries.
Sure, learning from the past has incredible value, but thinkers and teachers, who explored new frontiers, never conceived that their knowledge would be the last word. They were pioneers in discovery, not close-minded ideologues. Their learning represented only one chapter in the story of humankind’s development, not the complete book.
People, by nature, resist thinking beyond their comfort zones. History tells of forward thinking teachers, scientists, theologians, and philosophers who met with rejection and ridicule during their lifetimes. Values we hold dear today, such as democracy, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the free market or capitalism, were at one time villainized as dangerous to the social order by the status quo establishment. To be exposed to new theories can rattle us and shake the foundation of our belief system, and our belief system is what helps us to navigate through an incredibly difficult world. I more than understand.
I still remember my first few years in seminary. I had a college degree and felt prepared for graduate study, but I soon learned that theological education is not for the faint-hearted or close-minded. I would often leave class and drive back to my apartment feeling as though my theological guts had been ripped out. So much of what I had believed was being challenged by my teachers. Fortunately, I had wonderful teachers who sympathized with what I was going through and made themselves available to discuss my bruised and wounded ego.
Seminary exposed the cracks—chasms, really—in my theological foundation. My faith was childish and naïve, based more on my cultural upbringing than a thoughtful and considered study of Scripture. For the first time I was confronted with inconsistencies and superstitions that had become unquestioned dogma in my belief system. It was a painful as well as an exhilarating experience. Beloved convictions were being peeled away, but my vision of God was being enlarged, and my growing understanding of faith provided a healthy dose of humility that we pastors often need.
My teachers did not force me to buy-in to what they taught, but they understood that a good education required me to have more than a superficial knowledge and understanding of theology. We read, studied and discussed many views and theological perspectives, not necessarily to become disciples of those teachings but to become aware of what the best minds in theology had contemplated. That’s the purpose of education—education introduces students to as wide a range of ideas as possible and trusts the student to use his or her best judgement in deciding what to grab hold of and what to put to the side.
Education opens our mind to art, literature, science, different cultures and religions and a host of other important areas of knowledge. We learn to appreciate the genius talents of a Michelangelo or Leonardo di Vinci or listen in appreciation to the music of a Beethoven or Mozart. We become humbled when we learn of the vastness of the universe and reflect on our tiny place within it, and yet instead of feeling lost in the midst of billions of galaxies and countless planets, we feel enthralled and exhilarated that we have been given the gift of life.
Teachers are the ones charged with introducing to students vast fields of knowledge and opening their minds to new ideas, new ways of seeing the world and new questions that challenge their previous understandings. Without teachers who stretch students to think beyond the accepted traditions, without teachers who introduce eager minds to ideas that may seem at times blasphemous, without teachers who sacrifice their lives so that others can stand on their shoulders and make the world a better place, we would still be mired in the dark ages. Our lives today are immeasurably better and more fulfilled because of teachers.
I really can’t think of a higher calling than the profession of teaching. Physicians, engineers, architects, policemen, firemen, chemist, computer scientists, well, the list goes on and on, attained their goals because of dedicated, knowledgeable and highly trained teachers. It is the highest and most praiseworthy work. Teachers give their lives to broaden and enlighten the minds of other human beings, and this profound sacrifice makes it possible for their students’ dreams to come true. Is there any other field of work more challenging and more sacred to a country?
But today, not unlike in centuries past, teachers are under fire. Respect for these incredibly selfless and devout people has plummeted, not because of their failures, but because they are being used as pawns in an ideologically driven chess match. Thousands are leaving the profession every year. And now in Florida, the state I live in, the situation is so desperate that the governor has declared that if you are a veteran of the military and have two years of college, you can apply for a teaching position. Really? Do we think that someone with no training in education strategies, no experience working with elementary-age children or high school teenagers, no in-depth understanding of the subject, can teach a room full of diverse students—in a small, often crowded space full of bright kids, emotionally troubled kids, hurting kids and disinterested kids for a salary that probably compares to the minimum wage when all their hours are considered?
If there is any one issue that will drive this country into third-world status it is a lack of quality education. Sure, the wealthy can and do send their kids to private schools where the education is superb, but what about the rest? What about the kid who has all the potential in the world but sits in a public school classroom that is overcrowded, with inadequate resources, with an overworked teacher and parents protesting about a curriculum that doesn’t fit their particular agenda?
Would we trust heart surgery to a surgeon who had only a two year degree? Would we climb on board an airplane with a pilot who had virtually no experience in the cockpit flying in bad weather? Would we drive over a bridge designed and built by someone who had figured it out on his own?
Teachers are the most precious treasure a civilized nation has. Without good, qualified educators we will become an impoverished nation, a nation of haves and have nots, a land hopelessly divided and uninformed and, tragically, a nation on the road to decline.
