I was considering applying for the Richard Weaver Fellowship but have decided not to. Instead, I collected my notes on the essay "education and a free society" and would like to share them with the group to start a disucssion about some of the ideas I touch on... Please post your thoughts!!!

Education and a Free Society

If we look at education from the standpoint of the ancient Greeks, it began with the proper physical, mental and spiritual training of a young person to fulfill the needs of the city-state. This relatively simple education included training for war to protect the polis, training the spirit to resist desire, and training the mind to understand critical reasoning and the unique place of a citizen in society.

As circumscribed as this type of education was, it set the precedent for the Greek revolution in learning and can be said to have set the standard for education in a free society. Indeed even much later, with inauguration of the philosophical schools and the rise of Aristotle’s famous school of Hellas, and even new wave of learning ushered in by Hellenized-Asiatics like Archimedes, the Greeks brought about a revolution in the process by which science and education can be brought into the service of the state, albeit at this point an autocratic one.

Still, it was the element of free and rational inquiry that set this educational system apart from others. The application of logic and reasoning to the affairs of the human mind, again, set a precedent for western culture that has endured two thousand five hundred years of civilization.

In a society that is not free, or that does not uphold the critcal, free and rational inquiry into material phenomena, and politcal structure, the overall value of truth and the dignity of individuals within society are diminished- education only serves the idealistic trends of a party, of a system, or exists at the whim of an autocrat.

More then just the sweeping topic of education in a free society per se, is the right kind of education that uses as a minimum standard the precedent set by the ancient Greeks of the polis. That is, an education that ensures that people will know how to think and not what to think, will know the right questions to ask, will train citizens to value the inheritance of their ancestors, and will give them the opportunity to protect their society from intellectual corruption, luxury, license and internal decay, as well as the will to fight to defend their families, homes and civilization from others who seek to destroy it.

More then that, education in a free society has the important responsibility, especially in America, of declaring the self-evident truths of liberty and should therefore be civic minded. A civic-minded education begins with the knowledge that the free society one lives in is different from a society that is not “free.” This requires the recognition that this type of knowledge is not always self-evident to students who are increasingly absorbed by the phantasmagoric desire for material acquisition at all costs.

It may seem jocular to suggest that American students have forgotten the value of being American; but I would suggest that the inundation of the University system by the “trendoids” of post-modernism is of particular concern in this respect.

Theoretically post-modernism posits a system where by knowledge is “excavated” and deconstructed to answer the question “qui bono?” Who Benefits? The answer is usually the divisive use of race, power, gender or status to amplify the speaker’s authority or power at the repose of the less enlightened souls of undergraduates.

In these notes, I will not have time to touch on the more erroneous aspects of the post-modernism; needless to say it is only one of many disturbing trends and provides the theoretical lynchpin to so much thinking at the modern university. From my perspective, it seems that the search for a verifiable truth, which I see as the cornerstone of education in a free society is increasingly discarded in the pursuit of- to my more anachronistic understanding of the world- the search for power. Post-modernism does more to increase confusion and disparity between students, while it redirects their energy from understanding their role as a citizen, their duty in their vocation, and their ability to make good their pursuit of objective higher learning. In my perspective the monopoly of post-modern thinking on university campuses cripples the foundation of free and rational inquiry by refusing to admit any other perspective, any other ideas, any other forms of inquiry if they conflict with the postulates of its dictum.

In short, I see its rise and linkage with the politically correct movement as patently un-western and, un-free in a visceral sense.

Nothing illustrates the end result of an education in a free society then to contrast it with one that is not free. In China, students are indoctrinated into a world view that limits their horizons early. Starting between the ages of 6 and 7 the state begins to determine the course of a child’s life by directing his or her thinking into spheres of production for the state- be that the rare opportunity to become a bio-medical expert, or to work as helot in a Nike factory. If parents can no longer afford the outrageous fees for grade school children are frequently condemned to life long helotage, conscription, prostitution, or the rural poverty.

While purporting to uphold the value of civic education, the Chinese system often places the burden of success and achievement squarely on the political or religous views of parent, student or their ancestors. It is patently arbitary. In this regard, one could think of it as myopic in the same way that post-modernism in America is myopic, arbitrary and discriminatory. Of course China produces some of the world’s very brightest students, the great tragedy of its educational system is that so many other, bright and inquisitive students are denied its benefits based on political, religious or social belief. Without the correct connections, the right political views, the ability to kowtow to the autocrat of the day, students have little opportunity to express any rational or critical ideas that will offend the majority view. In fact, its traditions of controlled thought, state directed education, survival of the “best socially connected” are the antithesis of the goal of education in a free society.

In a truly free society the unique gifts of natural endowment, combined with directed learning strive to produce individuals whose innate human potential has an outlet. And, as complementary role the duty of a free society is to help produce and protect outlets for the achievement of individual greatness.

There is no higher goal in a free society then encouraging, and promoting the achievement of innate human potential. This goal is not possible without the structure, imagination and courage that it takes to produce free rational thought, to have debate, discussion, and to accept multiple points of view- qualities that are only present in free societies.

The duty of an educator in a free society is to incubate the natural gifts and talents of a student to a degree that is unprecedented in other societies; to encourage, challenge and inspire them to fulfill their potential. More then this, the guidance students receive must be couched in an understanding the it is the freedom in their society that nurtures them that allows them to reach their goals in a way that many other types of society do not. Ideally it will open their mind to new ways of thought that are tolerant of discursive and polemic views, by building on the traditions that their freedom encourages.

So if we ask, what is the role of education in a free society, I think we first need an understanding of it means to be free. As I understand it, being free in this context means being able to freely express our thoughts, share our ideas, debate their meaning. This married to the idea that freedom is the exception rather then the rule in human civilization- so that its protection and maintenance are the responsibility of a unique class of people called citizens. Moreover, it is recognition that there is a symbiosis between a free society and the responsibility of educated people to exercise rational inquiry and thought. Most importantly, it is impossible to understand the concept of a “free society” outside of the origins of truly democratic societies during the 6th and 7th centuries B.C. in Greece.

Education in a free society fulfills a maxim that Plutarch made famous; students are not “merely vessels to be filled with knowledge,” rather their education is a “fire to be kindled.” With this recognition and an understanding of the responsibility that comes along with it, a free, democratic society receives its imprint, its unique character and its scope which is limited only by the inquisitiveness of the student and the moral clarity of the teacher.

There is a symbiosis between a free society and education in that for a free society to remain free, it needs students capable of free, independent thought whose individual lives, challenges, disappointments and triumphs contribute to the maintenance of democratic institutions.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Brian,

These are just notes so please ignore the minor errors. Thanks!!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Brian,