Beyond an Education

I

I at the present moment, am writing. The trivium, the quadrivium, Rhetoric, Logic, Grammar; Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic, Music. They call this a basic education, and I am afraid that the modern child isn't even receiving this much. Why, though? Is it because the child has become less intelligent in the past three years? Or because a certain pride has crept in, by the overclass, telling us to simply dance the night away, under the strobes, and to fornicate. To work our childish employment, to feed ourselves a little bit of food. To live in a car or van. Or, to be rich, as the education of our youth is conflated with gaining a more lucrative subsistence.

None of this is really why I was educated. No, it was wonder. Why Io was a volcanic world, why Europa was an ice ocean, why Titan was like a Nitrogen Earth. Why Calypso was a rock, why Ganymede was so large. Why Quasars were the birth of galaxies. Why plate tectonics formed volcanoes and earthquakes. Why there were sedimentary, metamorphous and igneous rocks. Why there were noble gases, why there were metals, and salts, and nuclear. Why there were electrons, and neutrons, and protons. Why there were the elements on the Periodic table. Why natural disasters struck; why cold fronts and warm fronts brought different kinds of rain. What was kinetic and potential energy. What were the states of matter, solid, liquid, gas, plasma. It was a wonder to me. Also history, the ill effects of Communism, Feudalism, Socialism and Fascism. America's great wars, and Americas great injustices. Slavery, Civil Rights, Revolutionary Wars and Civil Wars. Also the human body, respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous, skeletal, skin, endocrine, digestive, reproductive. The types of minerals and rocks. The types of poetry. The types of rules of inference. The literary masters. Math: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus. How Physics equations were also forms of geometry. How order of operations works. Christ, the Apostles, the Prophets, the Kings, and Moses. The constellations. The four oceans, and the seven continents. The deepest marianas trench, and the highest mount Everest. The mythologies, Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Irish. The basic religions, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism.

Why did I attain this education? Why do I fawn over the globe on my desk? Why do I love words? Why do I read dictionaries? Why do I have encyclopedias? Why do I? It's not to make a fortune. No. My loves.

II

And if you are robbed of the basic skills, of Reading and Writing and Arithmetic... if you don't know how to read Shakespeare, or how to write structured and spell and use good syntax, and if you don't know how to do PEMDAS... what can you truly do? You cannot teach yourself a thing.

For I was given the gift of education. That I was, and I have used this gift to enrich my understanding. To be a Philosopher. A mean between wisdom and folly. For, they say it's a Naval Gazer, but what ought a man do with this vain life? Some men cannot form pictures in their minds, some men can form such real pictures, they cannot distinguish between reality and fiction anymore. Some men can hear no internal words, and some men can form poetry.

Thus, the mind can be molded to any shape. It can be formed, for it is plastic. You can take a lucid imagination, and augment it. You can make a mind understand metaphor. Or can you not? Are there limits on the imagination?

Can a tone deaf person not hit every beat or know the note? Can all intelligent people form pictures in their minds? I don't know, for the human mind is as diverse an organism as there are species in the waters.

There are men, who with prophylactic vision, can envision in their mind a thousand circumstances, and many turn out to be true. There are men who cannot think in words or pictures. There is everything in-between.

III

Thus, what is the education for? It is to edify the soul, and augment our love. There is no other purpose. The craftsman learns his trade, for his mind sees fuzzy pictures. The poet forms lucid pictures with the words he writes. The musician hears the melody in their head, the chef can perceive the taste and remember it, and therefore, know what spices blend together just by memory.

So many minds, that is why we learn. Thus, the education must be shaped according to each mind, and each pupil must learn what they are able. How do we determine this? By listening closely to what the student is saying. If they are more practical minded, then we give them practical things to do. If they are making stories, we make them a story teller. If they are drawing pictures, we make them an artist. If they are judging between right and wrong, we make them a Law Professional. If they have an elephant's memory, we make them a curator. If they are strong, but dull, we make them a farmer. For the student tells us, and the teacher must listen.

That is the deception, that we are all the same. There is no uniformity of intelligence. Some men are very strong minded, some men are weak minded. None have to be fools. The weak minded, do, and they do their activities and they plough and hoe the field. The one who has compassion is the priest, for he is not hard enough. The one who thinks deep thoughts, he is the poet and philosopher. The one who must build with the blocks, he is the one who becomes an architect. Let the child direct their education, but shepherd them. Bring them to their teachers. Each specific, to their trade. Sharpen them with the like minded Master.

IV

Thus, we see everything goes into its order. What is good for one, isn't good for another. What is known by one, isn't known by another. What one mind can reach, another mind cannot. Shepherd your students rightly. And guide them to true knowledge. For what is there, in life, to do? Truly? There is to learn, there is to labor, and there is to love. There is no other purpose to life, we learn, we labor, we love, and then we eat and make children. There is no other purpose to life. Thus, we praise the Most High for giving us these occupations which we will forget in the next life.

There is no need to do a thing that you are not built for. There is no need to force a square peg into a round hole. For, all can fit into the square hole, for it is square. It is the proportion by which all our math follows. But, each student is unique, and must be molded to a shape befitting for themselves.

For, I talked with one, he said the market was not to be fitted to our desires. I do not understand this... for the Market, if it is not to make the most men happy, then it is not doing its job. For, there are dreamers, and there are philosophers, and there are poets. There are dancers, and there are craftsmen, and there are musicians. There are farmers, and there are construction workers, and there are laborers. There are plumbers, and there are electricians, and there are masons. There are storytellers, there are makers of cartoons, there are makers of comic books. There are men who play games, and men who act at theatre, and men who cook our meals so we can enjoy life. All for the enjoyment of those who partake in the economy.

Yet, this is not what education is for. No... that is how one makes a trade.

V

Education is to fulfill the wonder of the soul. It is to satisfy our curiosity, and tell us how the world truly works. What interests us, we educate ourselves on. And we move through our teachers, learning all we can. And what we learn, teaches us how to be better for others and ourselves.

There is no other purpose to education. None that I can see. It is to edify the man, and then the man edifies his neighbor. It keeps account of history, and science, and law, and makes alive so men suffer less. For all is about making less suffering, and making more pleasure. For there is no other point to education, than to increase the pleasure of all mankind.

For the learned man, does not learn for himself, but to increase the pleasure of all around him. By edifying them with his philosophy, and by teaching them right maxims, and teaching them how not to be a hinderance to themselves or others.

Yet, stupid men do not like this about the educated man, and thus, they put him in chains and bondage. Such it is with many sages, they die upon the cliffs, in the prisonhouse, or they are in the streets wandering, and amassing followers who carefully understand them.

There is no point to education, beside to increase pleasure. And to augment judgment. And to know, and keep true account. Why is there anything else to do with it? It is to increase wonder, and to make faith stronger, and to establish the wisdom. For the princes of this world, they dictate what is knowledge, but education sees through them. For you must, to be happy. The Princes of this world are all wrong. They change laws, and times, and make all statements of the wise false. Yet, as Paul had said, "Love endures all things."

Thus, the education is to increase love. It is to seek what is good, for in good there is knowledge. In knowing the thing as it is, there is knowledge. The folk have their wisdom... they must see to know it. And that is the wisest of the wise. To know what you see. For that is all we can know. We cannot know Alexander, or the Periodic Table... but we can if we have sensed it. And there, you see... we study what we have sensed, and we learn what other people have sensed, therefore, we establish chains of witness.

And that is what education is, it is to augment love, and keep a record of witness. So, there is no broken chain and so what is true, is not false. For, there is no logic without true statements. It is all false, as formed by the Princes, they make it true, but it is not known. It never can be. Thus, logic is sound only on what is true, and that is what education is, is to see what is true with your own perception, and therefore, to peer into the dark, and make light.

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