Chapter 7 On Education

It is said that human intelligence is characterized by the ability to abstract general concepts from specific observations, so as far as time is concerned, general concepts appear after observations.If this is true, it will be clear to a man who is entirely self-taught--with neither teacher nor books--to what general concept each of his particular observations belongs, and to what point this general concept refers. a specific observation.He is very aware of his successes and failures, so he can correctly handle everything he comes into contact with.For this alone, it may be called a natural method of education.

On the contrary, the artificial method of education refers to listening to others, learning from others, and reading from others.Therefore, before you have a broad understanding of the world itself, before you observe the world yourself, your mind is already filled with all the concepts about the world.You will be told that the specific observations that form the general conception come later in the course of experience.At that time, you will mistakenly use your general concepts to judge people and things, and wrongly understand and treat these people and things.So we say that this kind of education leads people's thinking astray.

The above points explain why when we are young, after a long period of study and reading, we are always half naive and ignorant, and half have wrong concepts about things, so that our behavior is sometimes nervous and sometimes extreme. confidence.The reason is simply that our minds are full of general concepts, and we ourselves always want to use them, but it is not easy to use them correctly.This is also the result of directly going against the natural development of the brain, that is to say, there are general concepts first, and then specific observations. This is not putting the cart before the horse.Teachers do not develop children's ability to distinguish, teach them to judge independently and think about problems, but just blindly instill other people's ready-made ideas into them.The wrong outlook on life caused by the wrong use of general concepts can only be corrected through long-term self-experience, but it is seldom completely corrected.This is the reason why there are few scholars with common sense in life, but the illiterates are proficient in the world and easy-going.

The purpose of all education is to acquire knowledge about the world.As we have said, special attention should be paid to the right initiation of knowledge, so that one can have the right beginning to know the world.The general idea of ​​what I said is that the specific observation of things precedes the general concept of things, and thus the narrow local concept always precedes the broad concept.The whole system of education must therefore follow the steps which must be taken in the formation of concepts themselves.If one of the steps is overridden or omitted, then the educational system must be incomplete, the concepts obtained will be wrong, and the final result will be a distorted view of the world, which is the individual's own. Unique, and almost everyone has it, although some are limited to a certain period of time, but most have it for life.A man who knows his inner world well will see that it is only at the age of full maturity—and sometimes not at all expected—that it is possible to have a correct understanding of the many phenomena of life. Comprehension and clear concepts, although these phenomena are not very complex and difficult to understand.But before that, it was these phenomena that were the ambiguities in his understanding of the world, and some special lessons neglected in early education, whatever the type: artificial methods of education 1. The traditional educational method is still a natural educational method based on personal experience.

In light of this, education means trying to find rigorous natural paths to knowledge.Only in this way can education be carried out in an orderly manner along this path; children can gradually understand the world without erroneous views, because once formed erroneous views are difficult to correct.If this plan is adopted, we must be careful to prevent children from misusing words before they have a clear understanding of their meaning and use.Otherwise, it will bring a fatal consequence, that is, to be satisfied with using words without understanding things, in other words, only remembering short sentences in order to produce quick success and instant benefit.Often, this tendency begins in childhood, and it continues into adulthood to the point that many scholars learn nothing but rhetoric.

We must strive to make specific observations precede general concepts and not the other way around, but, often lamentably, this is not the case, just as the baby comes out of the mother's body with its feet and the rhyme of poetry.The common method is to imprint concepts and opinions in children's minds when they have seldom made concrete observations of the world. Strictly speaking, this is prejudice.So it is true that the child then learns about the world and accumulates experience through the medium of these ready-made concepts, rather than forming his own views from his own lived experience.

When one sees the world through one's own eyes, one can observe many things and many aspects of things.Of course, this short and fast learning method is far inferior to the method of using abstract concepts and making hasty induction on everything.It is necessary to correct the preconceptions in one's own experience for a long time, even for a lifetime, because when he finds that there is a contradiction between a certain aspect of things and the general concept he has formed, he will definitely deny the arguments provided by a certain aspect of things, It is prejudice to think that it is partial, and it will even turn a blind eye to the whole thing, denying the above-mentioned contradictions at all, so that his preconceptions will not be hurt in any way.So there will be many people who carry throughout their lives a baggage of falsehoods: grotesque thoughts, dreams, and paranoia, all of which, as a result, form a fixed set of thoughts that cannot be changed.In fact, he did not attempt to consciously form his own basic ideas from his own life experience and the way he viewed the world. It is because his ready-made general concepts came from others, which made him and many people So shallow, so ignorant.

But on the contrary, we should really follow the laws of nature to educate children.The way to let children build concepts in their minds is to let them observe by themselves, or at least use the same method to test, so that children can have their own thoughts. Even if they are not formed much, they are also well-founded and correct. of.In this way, children learn to measure things by their own standards and not by others' standards, which can avoid many strange thoughts and paranoia, and do not have to eliminate it later in life's lessons.By this means the minds of the children will always be accustomed to definite points of view, and having acquired a general knowledge, they will exercise their personal judgment in judging things without prejudice.

Generally speaking, no matter which aspect of life they pay attention to, they should not first form their conception of life from imitation before they know life as it is.We can't just put books in children's hands, and only books, but let them know things step by step--the real conditions of human life.We should first let them have a clear and objective understanding of the world, educate them to obtain concepts directly from real life, and then let this concept match real life-but never obtain concepts from other sources, such as books, Fables or other people's speech--and then apply these ready-made concepts to practical life, because the latter only shows that their minds are full of wrong concepts, which lead them to see things wrongly, until they misinterpret the world in vain. The point of view that suits oneself, eventually goes astray, manifested in all aspects: whether it is just forming one's own theory of life or busy with the practical affairs of life.The seeds of fallacies sown in the mind in the early years will bear the fruits of prejudice in the future. The degree of harm to the body of this kind of wrong view is heinous. They must focus on eradicating All kinds of prejudice.According to Diogenes, the eradication of prejudice is the answer to the question of what is the most useful knowledge raised by Antiianes, and we can also understand what he meant.

Children under the age of fifteen should not be taught subjects which are likely to leave serious misconceptions in their minds, as in philosophy, religion, or other bodies of knowledge which require wide-ranging views.For erroneous notions acquired at an early age are hard to eradicate, and of all intelligences judgment is the last to mature.Children can first learn subjects that are less likely to make mistakes, such as mathematics; they can also learn subjects that are not harmful even if mistakes are made, such as languages, natural sciences, and history.Moreover, it is generally said that the body of knowledge we learn at each stage of life should be balanced with the intelligence at that stage, that is, it can be fully understood.During childhood and youth, the main time should be devoted to the accumulation of information and the acquisition of specialized knowledge about individual and concrete things.It is too early to form a large number of opinions at this period, and they should be left to make their final discrimination in the future.Judgment should not be used in youth, when there is no mature experience, it is impossible to use judgment, let it be, not forced; also, do not instill prejudice before using judgment, because prejudice will make the Judgment never comes into play.

In addition, the memory should be fully used in youth, because the memory at this time is the most vigorous and the strongest.Of course, one should be careful and foresighted in choosing what to remember, for what is learned in youth will never be forgotten.We must carefully cultivate the fertile soil of memory so that it can bear as many fruits as possible.Think about it, when the people you knew before the age of 12 are so deeply embedded in your memory, and have left such an impression on you in those years, that your recollection of the teachings and admonitions of others is so deep. So clear, then, that it seems natural to base education on the quickness and firmness of mind of that period.As long as this method is strictly followed, the systematic adjustment of the impressions reflected in the mind may be successful. Human youth is very short, so memory is also confined within a narrow range, especially individual memory.Since this is the case, it is especially important to memorize the essence and substance of any system, regardless of other points of no importance.But which is the essence and essence depends on the authorities of various disciplines. They should make a choice after careful consideration. This choice must be firm, mature, and made through screening.The first priority is, in general, what a person should and must know, followed by what is necessary for a specific job or occupation.The former should be classified according to the method of the encyclopedia, and be divided into a step-by-step learning process to adapt to the general cultural level that one should have in one's own environment.At first this knowledge should be confined to the courses necessary for elementary education, and later extended gradually to the subjects involved in all branches of philosophical thought;The whole body of knowledge thus furnishes fine-grained regulations for intellectual education, which, however, should be renewed every ten years.According to this arrangement, the memory of youth will be put to the fullest use, and will furnish the most favorable material for the subsequent exercise of judgment. A man's knowledge is said to be mature when all his abstract concepts and his self-perceived things are completely consistent, that is to say, he has reached the perfection that an individual can achieve.That is to say, each of his abstract concepts is directly or indirectly based on observation, which alone gives the concept its real value; it also shows that he can reduce each of his observations to its proper In the abstract idea of ​​belonging.Maturity is the result of experience and takes time.There is generally a difference between knowledge acquired through one's own observation and knowledge acquired through the medium of abstract concepts.The former is obtained naturally, while the latter is obtained from others.We accept everything from our education, whether useful or harmful, with the result that, in youth, there is no consistent connection between abstract concepts, which are words in our heads, and real knowledge. True knowledge needs to be acquired by ourselves through observation.Only when the latter two kinds of knowledge correct each other's errors can they gradually approach each other. Once this combination is realized, knowledge can be called mature.The perfection of this knowledge, whether higher or lower, is not closely related to another form of perfection, I mean the perfection of individual powers, which cannot be measured by the agreement of the two kinds of knowledge, but It is determined by the degree of perfection achieved by each kind of knowledge. To deal with all kinds of relationships well, what is needed is the correctness and depth of common sense knowledge about the world.Necessary as it is, it is also the most tedious of all sciences.As a result, even at the end of life, a person cannot fully grasp this knowledge, but in the field of science, even if he is young, he can grasp the more important facts.The difficult lesson of acquiring this common sense begins to lie before one's eyes when one does not yet know the world, that is, in childhood or youth, and often, in old age, there is an infinite amount of common sense to be learned. Learning this kind of knowledge is inherently difficult, and novels make it even more difficult.What is shown in the novel is actually the state of life and the world that does not exist.But young people are credulous and easy to accept the outlook on life mentioned in the novel and become a part of their thinking. What they face is not pure passive ignorance, but 100% fallacy.This fallacy gives rise to a whole series of misconceptions which do not teach life experience as it should, and which misinterpret what experience teaches.If a young man has not had a lamp to show the way before, he is now led astray by will-o'-the-wisps, and it is the same with girls.The minds of both boys and girls are filled with muddled notions from novels, and the result is expectations that can never be fulfilled.Those opinions usually have a very bad influence on their lives. In this respect, those who have no time to read novels in their youth-many of manual labor, for the most part, are in a better position.Of course, there are very few novels that are beyond reproach, and some even have a good impact.For example, we should first mention "Gilbras" and other works of Le Sage (exactly based on the Spanish original), and secondly "Wakefield's Life"; in a sense, we can also mention Val Scott's novels; and Don Quixote, as an ironic exposition of the errors I refer to. "Gilbras" is the work of French novelist and playwright Le Sage. "The Biography of Pastor Wakefield" is the work of the British writer Goldsmith.