The American Scholar

I'd like to start off by saying that Ralph Waldo Emerson was a very intelligent man. One of his more celebrated works was a speech that he gave to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge university on August 31, 1837. It was entitled "The American Scholar" and it pointed out a few risks that "Man Thinking" might face if he was not well grounded enough in himself. The main part that I was hoping to discuss today was a passage regarding books of the past in which he states:

"The sacredness which attaches to the act of creation, -- the act of though, -- is transferred to the record. The poet chanting, was felt to be a divine man: henceforth the chat is divine also. The writer was a just and wise spirit: henceforward it is settled the book is perfect; as love of the hero corrupts into worship of his statue. Instantly the book becomes noxious: the guide is a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the multitude, slow to open to the incursions of Reason, having once so opened, having once received this book, stands upon it, and makes an outcry, if it is disparaged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas not from their own sight of principles. Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books."

Now, I apologize for the long passage that you had to read through but it makes too invaluable of a point to summarize. Essentially, we have a tough time thinking for ourselves in this society and that transfers expectedly into the education system. Now a days we are not dedicated to learning how to be developed thinkers, but rather taught the most effective theory or process of the day. Collegiate education especially is not intended to teach you how to be a builder or a dentist. It is intended to teach you how to be a free-thinking individual whom, upon becoming a builder or dentist, will be able to think through issues that face him.

To often to we cram the views of certain famed thinkers down the throats of students. Descartes said this, Hippocrates said that, Pythagoras purported something else. This is not how you create scholars. Emerson states later in the same work:

"The so-called practical men sneer at speculative men, as if, because they speculate or see, they could do nothing."

Something that has always stricken me as interesting is that whenever somebody is asked what they are studying in college and the answer is business, pre-med, pre-law, advertising, or journalism. The response is always supportive: "What a good major, that is going to lead to a very lucrative career." However, when the response is instead something along the lines of philosophy, history, sociology, or math, the classic reply is "And what are you going to do with that?" People today don't realize that education is not solely about training you for a career. We are not machines that are being given the latest version of software to perform our assigned tasks at an optimal level. We are living, thinking beings who are capable of more than regurgitating technical manuals, business theories and formulas.

It saddens me that people view school as a trial we must face to get to the "real world." In fact, the etymology of the world School comes from the Greek "Skhole" which translates to leisure. That's because at the end of the day, after farming, after making pots and building houses, the Greeks would sit around and learn, debate, and discuss the theories of the day. Nowadays, school is a trial that kids must struggle through, it is a burden.

If the intent is to learn how to better hold a job, how to better build, sew, type, or calculate; traditional education is probably not the most efficient route, but if the desire is to learn to think critically, originally and novely; educate away! But don't spend that time of leisure cramming the words of men and women you are told are smarter than you. By all means read them and learn them, but don't forget that imperative step of taking that information, analyzing it and using it to shape your own views, which may very likely be far more useful and revolutionary than those of your muses.

If you are going to obtain an "education" make sure you're doing it for the knowledge, not for the piece of paper that says you've paid your dues.