Simply put, education is failing because it has derailed off the course of its telos (purpose) i.e. wisdom—courtesy of a broken bureaucratic modus operandi based on institutionalization, of course.
The ailment education is suffering from could be best summarized with a single term, ‘self-alienation’. Over the years, namely the last two decades, education has gradually become more distant from its nucleus, paideía (παιδεία). Just like planets in the solar system, the farther they are from the sun, the colder they tend to get. Likewise, the farther education gets from paideía, the less purposive, progressive, and productive it becomes.
Paideía refers to “the rearing and education of the ideal member of the polis or state,” (Wikipedia). However, a literal translation of the word bears an inherent philosophic connotation with a sublime ring to it [preferably spoken in a reverent sotto voce], “tame thyself!” (Rossellini, 2018)
Education has transformed—rather degenerated—from a ‘process for transcendence’ to attain wisdom and unleash all that is divine within mankind which God has endowed unto us; into a ‘mandated system’ for social recognition, if not approval.
There’s no way better to fathom this process for transcendence than the manner in which Richard Watson had put it, “Without some degree of education, man is wholly the creature of appetite. Labor, feasting, and sleeping divide his time, and wholly occupy his thoughts.” (Cocker 615)
Thence, most, if not all, arguments criticizing, debunking, and rejecting the contemporary education system are wanting and remain merely tangential—without ever addressing the issue at the kernel. Whether it be the system’s refrainment from genuinely ‘teaching students about money’; the illusory nature of instantaneous success; or, the acceptance of failure as an integral part—even the prima causa—of success; notwithstanding the innate cruciality pertaining to such notions, they all drift on the periphery, and could never elevate a person past the threshold of appetite.
An authentic education springs from the mastery of the greatest virtue of all, temperance. The education system preaches evolution and proselytizes the animalis socialis (i.e. social animal), whence the res cogitan (i.e. a thinking thing) is scantly alluded to—if at all—within the folds of curricula. Here is precisely where the system errs and fails.
A social animal is in rerum natura limited to the confinements of appetite—in spite of the extent of its social interaction—which in turn steers the cognitive faculties towards a perpetual state of inertia. True, labor may incorporate an element of cognitive processing, which is particular to the first introductory phase into the occupation. After the individual acquires a comprehensive understanding of their occupation, he thence becomes a mere operator: an external acting force setting things in motion on a habitual—more like instinctive, really!—basis; without ever feeling the urge to engage his cognitive faculties ever again. Hence, labor would inevitably join the ranks of ‘instinctive functions’ {i.e. eating, sleeping, and procreation}.
Brutish functional instincts, despite the level of social interaction the animal of concern engages in, cannot be tamed—only saturated; unless, the forces of reason are exerted to bridle those instincts. An animalis socialis per se is incapable of summoning and exercising such powers; for it lacks the requisite faculties. Should the occasion arise where the same animalis socialis happens to be a res cogitan simultaneously (i.e. a conscious human being)—given the conditio sine qua non that the latter is the predominant state of ‘being’—then, cognition is rendered possible, as well as the subjugation of instincts to one’s volition.
The mere presence of a faculty without its utilization means nothing at all, as if it were missing altogether.
The res cogitan alone entertains the capacity to wield the power of reason in pursuit of Sophie i.e. wisdom. We are thinking things; and, that is the foremost truth about our being. Nevertheless, the res cogitan itself needs training vis-á-vis the application of reason towards that end; just as a swordsman diligently practices in order to command the motion of his sword ‘as if it were one of his own limbs’. We refer to this form of training as, education.
Education is meant to instruct the res cogitan on the means of exercising temperance. The aim here is not simply to restrain one’s desires and instincts, but rather to instill some order to one’s thoughts. Even the greatest of minds is susceptible to be lost in the vastness of its thoughts. Education equips the mind with the tools to define the dimensions of perfection pertaining to each individual idea and instinct alike. Thereupon, one finds themself on the path of transcendence towards that highest form possible of human-compatible divinity—wisdom.
For the truth of the matter is this:
Granted! The contemporary education system maintains that Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) is the highest designation; however, it somehow managed to obscure the fact that the original intent was to imply that every field is a sub-discipline of philosophy—i.e. the love of wisdom. One fails to comprehend how the love of the highest form attainable to mankind, in a word, wisdom, could even remotely be reached without the perfection of one’s thoughts via temperance.
By teaching students that they are to commence their journey upon graduation as agents of a system, the institution is making perfect animalis socialis out of each single one of them, destined to nothing beyond the servitude of their appetite. That eventuality is inevitable for a ‘being’ defined as animalis socialis—notwithstanding its evolutionary stage. Alternatively, the res cogitan is the only being with a res extensa (i.e. a body) that is capable of practicing paideía (παιδεία) through the force of rational cognition.
Paideía (παιδεία) is the impetus for temperance, which is the article devised in the exercise of the human love for wisdom, philosophy.
“TAME THYSELF!”
[Note: the terms ‘res cogitan’ and ‘res extensa’ have been abstracted from Cartesian philosophy, and employed in their same designated notion therein]
[For more on the transcendence of the human condition, refer to my paper, “Consciousness: Heaven and Hades”]
Reference
Cocker, Benjamin F. Christianity and Greek Philosophy. Apple Books; New York: Carlton & Lanahan, San Francisco: E. Thomas, Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden, 1870.
“Paideia.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 4 Apr. 2004, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paideia. Accessed 29 May 2021.
Rossellini, Ingrid. Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance. Doubleday, 2018.
