Some Thoughts on Education

Read the quotations below and think how you would answer the questions.


EDUCATION

“Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive: easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.” [Lord Brougham: in a speech to the House of Commons, 1828]

• Does the sentence suggest that it’s easier to control uneducated masses?

• Is it in the interest of those who wield power to keep people ignorant?

• Do you think that it’s still possible in the 21st century to doubt the benefits of education?

LEARNING

“A little learning is a dangerous thing.” [Alexander Pope]

• How would the meaning of the sentence change if it started with ‘little learning’ instead of ‘a little learning’?

• What can be dangerous about ‘a little learning’?

• Is ‘a little learning’ better than ignorance?

TEACHING

“Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” [Oscar Wilde]

• Which things are worth knowing that cannot be taught?

• If you were to choose things that you want to know, would they exclude things that you are currently learning?

• If certain things cannot be taught, does it mean that they cannot be learned?

INSTRUCTION

“The things which hurt, instruct.” [Benjamin Franklin]

• Do we learn better through pain?

• If children learn through fun and play, isn’t it proper education?

• Is an idea of punishment necessarily connected with instruction?

TEACHERS

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” [Henry Adams]

• Doesn’t teachers’ influence stop the moment you leave the classroom?

• Have you ever been taught by a teacher whose lessons you will still remember after 10 or even 20 years?

• Is the teaching profession considered a ‘vocation’ or a ‘job’?

WISDOM

“The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.” [T.H. Huxley]

• How different is ‘wisdom’ from ‘education’?

• Is wisdom connected with technological and scientific progress or compassion and understanding?

• Who can be called a wise man?