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more to learn as our culture grows
more complex. Educa1ion gives us
1he lools 10 deal with material forces
thal were once our enemies. But
education musl also 1each us how 10
live and behave in lhis new socie1y.
What ls Education?
Education should be useful. We
don't mean useful in the sense of
making us adepl in manipulaling
gadgets. Every youlh reading this
tener wanls something bcuer 1han
that. You wish to be fil 10 perform
all 1he duties of life juslly. skillfully.
magnanimously, and with personal
sa tisfaction.
Learning sheer fact is not all of
education. The three R's do not con–
stitute education, any more than a
knife, fork, and spoon conslitute a
dinner. Sorne of lhe greatesl bores
are people who have memorized a
great deal of information and love
10 talk about it.
The aim of an educational in–
stilution is to give students a living
fund of knowledge from which they
may generate ideas. When you can
bring relevan! background to bear
on a problem, assemble pertinent
data, grasp relationships. appraise
the values involved, and make a
judgment, you are truly an educated
person.
Then you need not fear becoming
bewildered by change or thrown
into a panic by misfortune, because
you will be able to determine three
vital things: where you are. where
you are headed, and wha t you had
better do under these circumstances.
In seeking that education, be
imaginative. The first ten or twelve
years of your life is its romantic
stage. When you looked through a
telescope to study the stars, you did
not see lumps of mauer floating in
space but the glory of the sky. In
secondary school you pass through
the age of precision. You must learn
things correctly, exactly, and com–
pletely, because these things form
the bank account from which you
will be drawing all through your
life. After secondary school you en–
ter the period of generalization. You
will begin to apply what you have
learned, transferring particularities
of knowledge to the problems of
general living. As one peak is
climbed, farther ranges will appear
10
on the horizon, beckoning to you.
You cannot climb them until you
reach them, but there they are. eter–
nally luring to you.
But, you may say. "so-and-so
made good in life without having
hadan extensive formal educa1ion."
Quite true. Many men and women
did not have 1he opportunity that is
open to every boy and girl in Can–
ada today. Thcy left school and
went to work before completing
high school; sorne did not go any
furlber than public school. But 1hey
continued to learn while they
worked.
T hey succeeded in spite of handi–
caps and not because of 1hem. They
had a burning desire to attain edu–
cation by home s1udy, in evening
classes, or in other ways. Sir Win–
ston Churchill. who contributed so
greatly to the world in war and in
peace, once told an audience in Sos–
ton:
"1
have no technical and no
university education. and have just
had to pickup a few things as
r
went
along."
Young people in Canada today
generally need not endure hardship.
People of the older generation have
made it possible for young people to
become educated to the utmost ex–
tent of their capability and their de–
sire.
Don't expect - and don't desire–
that educa1ion will be poured into
you. You will see more interesting
and useful things when you look for
them yourself. You can't profit by
accepting facts without questioning,
by accepting words instead of trying
to understand ideas. You need to
explore the many sides there may be
toa question.
If you walk all around the opio–
ion of a famous man, question
it,
and then embrace it. the opinion is
no longer his but yours. When you
learn how a danger occurs, you may
take steps to avoid it; if you want to
escape being fooled. find out how
the fooling is done; go behind the
puppet show to see with what skill
the little figures are manipulated.
Special Tralnlng vs. General
Knowledge
Choosing a career today is not the
docile following in your parents'
footsteps that was common a half
cen-tury ago. There are attractive
professions, businesses. and crafts
that were not heard of or even imag–
ined. when today's university gradu–
ales were born.
It
is not desirable that you should
pursue technical education to the
exclusion of general or cultural edu–
cation. Foremen will tell you that a
worker who has had practice in
learning at school usually turns out
to be better at learning in a factory.
He catches on more quickly, nol
only 10 the "how" of his job but to
the "why" of it. He has a quicker
and surer grasp of problems. He is
more likely to think up time- and
labor-saving ideas. He has the
broad outlook and the capacity for
straight thinking that are essential
to promotion and advancement.
The earthworm has not only dig–
ging skill bul a sense of the prin–
cipies involved in digging a good
hole at the proper depth and in the
right direction. We humans, on a
higher lever, need no less.
ll
is prin–
cipies, and not mere data, we need if
we are to find our way through the
mazes of tomorrow.
l f you are going in for commerce.
do not imagine for a moment that
all you need is training in reading.
writing, and arithmetic. Even the
addition of bookkeeping, shorthand,
and typing is not enough. You need
an intelligent knowledge of the real–
ities of modern economic life.
Business men believe that more
attention s,hould be given in schools
and colleges to the art of commu–
nicating ideas. There is not much
prospect for advancement in com–
mercial firms unless you can express
your thoughts competently. You
cannot buy or sell, give instructions
to subordinates, make a report, win
friends or influence people unless
you can say clearly and appealingly
what it is in your mind to say.
lf you are going to learn a trade,
don't be satisfied to become a spe–
cialist in "know-how" rather than in
knowledge. The sort of person you
are to be is more important in the
long run than the sort of skill you
acquire.
Really useful training in a trade
will provide you with sorne general
principies and a thorough ground–
ing in their application to certain
concrete details.
lt
will give you a
base on which you may build a big-
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1976