The essay begins with the idea that education offers an enormous bill of fare, from Greek to stenography, music to economics, making it difficult to choose the right dishes for a healthy life and becoming truly educated people. The main question is what education is for, as most people are educated because of their parents’ wishes, societal habits, compulsory attendance, or necessity for success. However, these reasons alone do not guarantee getting what education has to offer.
The aim of education is to know the first-rate in any subject, with a view to achieving it as nearly as possible. This means that if we can fix this firmly in our minds, we should not stumble through a variety of lessons, lectures, and books, only partially aware of where we are or what we are doing.
The difficulty with education is that it has so many fields, making it impossible to know the first-rate in all of them. Therefore, the most important fields should be those in which every human being ought to know the first-rate. These should enter into the education of all. By focusing on the true aim of education, we can achieve the first-rate in any subject we study, fostering a sense of purpose and achievement in life.
Vocational education is a crucial field in modern society, as it provides quality and first-rate education in various activities such as engineering, medicine, commerce, technology, nursing, and hotelkeeping. An educated person should know what is first-rate in creative and intellectual activities like literature, art, architecture, and music. While science and philosophy are difficult to estimate quality in, everyone has close contact with these fields. Architecture, literature, music, and art are all essential aspects of daily life, and it is important to distinguish good from bad. While these fields may not be essential, they are among the few immortal things in the world, and a person’s legacy can be achieved through great works like poetry, symphonies, paintings, sculptures, and buildings.
The author argues that one cannot feel educated without knowing what is first-rate in their daily occupation, especially in fields where human creativity and intellectual powers are revealed. Living is a more challenging task than teaching, nursing, business, or medicine, and it is essential to know what is excellent in human nature and life. The author believes that modern civilization lacks clear standards and understanding of the distinction between good and bad in conduct and life. They argue that the media, such as films, advertisements, radio, and newspapers, are major influences on the public view and the view of life they embody.
The author argues that the only way to learn what is first-rate in any field is to meet it. This is particularly true in life itself, where we must make acquaintance with those who have known and lived it. The humanities, which encompass various subjects such as theology, philosophy, literature, history, anthropology, psychology, languages, politics, social studies, economics, and geography, are essential for understanding man’s full face and his best aspects.
Religion, literature, and history are the most important subjects for seeing man at his best. Religion contains the purest and finest archetypes of human excellences, but it can be taught without considering these aspects. History and literature are less personal, but they provide a more personal view of human nature and its excellence.
To see man at his full face, one must ask questions about famous figures, their decisions, their successes, failures, contributions to their age, qualities, defects, and their contribution to society. Literature allows one to hear the speaker speak aloud to the world, recording every thought, vision, fancy, and emotion that has ever passed through the human mind.
However, all literature does not give us a portrait of human excellence; it shows human nature but not necessarily at its best. To avoid blinding ourselves by the genius of a writer, we must avoid allowing the genius of a writer to blind us to what is unworthy or inadequate in their vision of life. For one’s own purpose, which is to know the best in human nature, one must turn to the writers that show it. The greatest writers have also the noblest vision of life.
The author argues that knowing what is first-rate in literature and history has practical uses for our own lives. However, it is important to note that knowing the first-rate is not the same as achieving it. People live with in literature and history can affect one’s outlook and conduct, just as the people live with in their homes or daily work affect it. Good communications can improve one’s mores, while evil communications corrupt good mores.
The author suggests that without these studies, we will never know what the world is really like. Our education tends to be superficial, focusing on the surface of life and not its depths. Literature itself can be superficial, but it is essential to read writers who have deeper and longer views to keep one’s eyes open to realities that may grow dim.
The author believes that man needs a long vision in life and should view it through bifocal spectacles. He believes that when one meet goodness and greatness, one is in the presence of something fundamental in the universe, solid ground that remains firm whatever convulsions shake the world.
The author also emphasizes that the essential characteristic thing in man is not found in Marx, the economic animal, or Freud, but in man straining his eyes to catch sight of the vision of a better world and incorporate it into his life and society.
Religion is the greatest instrument for raising us to heights beyond our normal vision. It is amazing that a person not intellectually bright or educated can grasp and live by advanced principles of Christianity. However, the author stresses the power of great literature and the great personalities one encounter in literature and history to open and enlarge one’s knowledgeable minds, showing one what is first-rate in human personality and character by showing goodness and greatness.
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