The need for freedom in education

Once again, in most communities in this country, the learning process is underway in the schools; from kindergarten through college and on into adult education. It is a life-giving source of enrichment, not only in professional preparation, but in the overall enjoyment of life here upon the earth.

We are told that “the Glory of God is intelligence…” that “a wise man will hear and will increase learning…” This admonition applies to both the temporal and spiritual spheres.

True education is the paramount purpose of a free people. It helps us develop fundamental operating principles in our lives that can guide and influence us for good. It helps make living happier by contributing to the prosperity, peace, and security of our country.  And so, as a free people, we must always strive for the highest and best in education.

And as individuals, learning should be a lifelong endeavour…a continuing exercise in thinking, preparing and living. The very process of learning helps us develop and preserve such valuable habits of the mind as curiosity, objectivity, open-mindedness, respect for evidence, and the capacity to think critically. It awakens and encourages a love of truth and contributes to our individual wellbeing as long as life endures.

Learning need not always be a formal exercise that takes place in a classroom or in a library. Sometimes, we become educated when we least expect it. We learn through our day-to-day accomplishments, and we learn about ourselves through living. That, too, is an important part of education, learning what is inside us, finding the spark of truth that God has put into every heart, acquiring the inner knowledge of what is right and wrong for each one of us.

And some of our most vital learning takes place as we study the scriptures. We learn not only the truths of this earth, but the truth of the Creator. We learn to know Him, to have confidence in Him, to have faith in His laws. We learn to love Him and to serve Him, not because we fear Him but because we have knowledge of His purpose.

Yes, for most of us, the beginning of a school year is a reminder of our life-long education process, a process that includes the growth of spiritual knowledge as well as temporal learning.

As school doors open again to receive the youth of our generation, it is my wish that we don’t only focus on free education but what is commonly called academic freedom. We know that in the halls of learning there must be freedom to tell the truth, freedom for the discovery of new truth, freedom for the acceptance of new truth, and also (sometimes overlooked) freedom for the acceptance and preservation of old truth. In other words, there must be freedom for the presentation of facts as they are. But with our insistence upon academic freedom, we must insist equally against academic licence. Grave difficulty always follows when men fail to distinguish between freedom and licence.

This isn’t true only in academic circles. It is true in all human activities. Freedom that has exceeded the bounds of freedom, freedom that has been permitted to become a perversion of freedom, becomes a devastating licence. By the misunderstanding of academic freedom, some of the instructors of youth may sometimes be led to suppose that they have a right deliberately to plant seeds of unbelief, to suppose that they may teach unproven theories as inviolate, truths, to suppose that they may dogmatically proclaim their own opinions as incontrovertible facts.

The abuse of academic freedom, as is true of the abuse of any other freedom, is something to be reckoned with, because the impact of ideas, true or false, is far-reaching in its effect upon the lives of all of us. But still we must insist upon this freedom. Education without it is a mockery. But we must insist that theories and inferences will not be mistaken for law, and that unverified beliefs and personal opinions will not be arbitrarily presented as universal truths.

One of the most solemnly sacred responsibilities in the world is that of teaching other men’s children. It is a responsibility that may well bring an earnest teacher to his knees in humility and in supplication that he may not implant in the heart or in the mind of any child, by statement or suggestion, anything that is not true, anything that would undermine our heritage of freedom, anything that would cast doubt upon the basic realities of life, anything that would devaluate the great moral verities that time and Providence have given us. The theories and the opinions of men change so much and so often. May we vigilantly preserve the freedom to teach truth, and may we vigilantly guard against letting freedom become a licence to teach anything else.

By Samuel Enos Eghan

Email: samueleghan@gmail.com