EDUCATION & WISDOM
by Bryan Lynch, Dean of Academics
Adapted from a Verbatim Article, Summer 2006
"The purpose of education is better, that is wiser, living, not just more knowledge."
Bryan Lynch
Dean of Academics
At the Society for Classical Learning conference in June 2006, David Hicks, one of the plenary speakers and author of Norms and Nobility, stressed that classical and Christian education must not merely focus on information, but must lead toward action. The purpose of education is better, that is “wiser”, living not just more knowledge. A classical and Christian education, like beauty, should be actively working toward good.
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Beauty, in order to be considered truly beautiful, must include an ethical element. The proverb says that the beautiful woman without discretion is like a pig with a ring in its snout. It is absurd, ridiculous, incongruous, and ugly. This is what education without godly wisdom is like (And true wisdom is not chiefly expressed on the mountain-top among the ascetics who withdraw from human contact, but among the living and active). So, all the deep learning in the world cannot save the fool from the charge of foolishness. Education, to be truly considered such, must have a noble end in mind.
There have always been differences as to this active nature of education. Among the Greeks there were those who thought of learning as something mainly (or only) for those with the time to contemplate in order to become wiser men. Others used their learning to exploit mobs or entertain masses for profit. In Rome a similar situation arose, with parents giving their sons years of training in rhetoric so that they might one day become great orators. And the point of their greatness? Fame, profit, power. There were those, of course, like the man in Augustine’s Confessions, who so ordered his life that he had the maximum amount of time to contemplate wisdom. That was rare then and how much rarer today!
In the Renaissance, with the attempt to revive classical learning along more original lines, the ideal of civic humanism called on all men to use their learning and talents in the service of the state. For the man given a classical education this might mean becoming an ambassador or serving the head of state personally or in some governmental function. The point was to use their education in a way that promoted the prestige or fame of the city-state. If personal reputation was gained along the way, so much the better.
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The classical and Christian ideal stresses the importance of service, but the service we mean is not to the state primarily (although this is not precluded). And certainly it would be a failure if our students left Veritas with no greater ambition than to use the learning they gained here to promote and enrich themselves. The well-known passage in James stresses that a faith that doesn’t work is not a living faith. In the same way, an education that is only concerned with data and information transfer, the end of which is self-serving, is not a living education.
In his Confessions, Augustine, who received the best education available in the ancient world, mentions those who spend much energy and effort to become learned only to gain temporal glory. He was once among them. But his conversion to Christ meant a radical change. He saw that the purpose of learning, as with everything, is to glorify and serve God alone. Classical and Christian education is for wisdom, and wisdom implies right action and right living. The goal of our teaching at Veritas School should be that when our students leave us they will have this understanding deeply implanted in their minds and hearts.
Bryan Lynch is the Academic Dean of Veritas School. A founding board member, Bryan served as its Headmaster for 20 years; he has worked in both private and public education for over 40 years. In addition to his administrative duties focusing on teacher training and observation, Bryan teaches Humane Letters, Rhetoric, and Art History. He is a frequent presenter at the ACCS annual conference and an accrediting administrator for the ACCS.