Sub Terra Vita Chronicle #14: On Education

Sub Terra Vita

By Tim Krenz\

August 24, 2015

Chronicle #14: On Education

Education determines destiny. In this season of fall, as schools resume for young and old, let this stand as both warning and encouragement, for a little fear of the future might help, and accenting the positives of education can't hurt. In all manners, the art and act of learning can save the future—for the individual, their family, their community, and humanity.

By contrast, lack of education, or disregarding its importance, can condemn a person or the entire world in the end, to pitiless poverty or in slavery to oppression. According to a friend, named Coda, the hierarchy of the world goes, “The strong rule the weak, the smart rule the strong, and the clever rule all.” This statement may seem too simple, but it presents a hard, cold, and brutal logic of power. Beyond the morality of right and wrong, the statement's merits remain correct. In the rational world, self-interest governs the hearts, ambitions and calculations of minds.

Who would not want to benefit from the use of their reason, their intellect, their labor, and their hands all that could earn them what they desire? But, what do we really need in terms of education? By defining education—formal or informal in this context—I mean that every person attains the highest amount and style of learning within their ability, and focus themselves at the level attainable by their drive and curiosity in all diverse things. If a person does not, by choice and not means, do all they can to educate themselves and encourage others to the same end, they condemn themselves and their families to become the cogs of machines that run them over and crush their liberty of choices in life.

Enough of the negatives. The positives of education will always outweigh the scales of the ignorance in balance. First, education comes in diverse ways, and it should do so to provide a person with the real goal of learning and living: The ends of wisdom, beyond the mere means of material property (although property does play a vital and positive role for a family). Education or pure learning can mean: formal or informal; public or private; home school or faith instruction; community-centered; colleges; universities; continuing and work-related; and the “schools of the hard knocks.” It all depends on a continuing thirst to know all that one can want to know or have time to learn. All the best education comes to us in the form of self-education—from the treasures groves of libraries, and from an even more honored place.

The most pure education comes from family members teaching young-lings to read and write, to sum and connect, and to deconstruct via deduction. Learning the skills like leadership and responsibility happen on playing fields; reasoning, discipline and induction come from table games, etc. And sadly, acquiring and continuing the skills and crafts passed by elders stands most at risk of loss in a world increasingly disconnected by becoming more “connected.” This last, honored part of our educational heritage ring must never die for lack of curiosity. (I state that as this week's challenge to the reader—“Can you help preserve the ageless arts of living from your elders?”).

By personal and informal education, or formal and structured “studies,” one aims not only for the increase in income that statistics may or may not show as a reality of earning higher degrees. By a personal commitment to all forms of learning, we aim most of all to pass on the commitment to betterment, for families, by mentors, etc., to the future, for the best reasons: Encouraging the wisdom of bettering peace and prosperity in the world, as a commitment to the excellence one person can achieve.