For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.
—Dorothy. L. Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning
Introductory Note
Education has implied anthropology. There is no putting forth a system of education without describing who man is and what his ends are. Education is meant to start from what he is and journey to the ends that he must be.
Our anthropology is simple: man is a knowledge-loving species and he pursues knowledge for its own sake, for his satisfaction, and for the glory of God. We may eat honey because it is nutritious. But we often eat it because it is sweet. So it is with knowledge. We attempt to know because it is sweet to know. Not so that we might do “something” with what we know, ride on people’s heads with what we know, or mock people’s ignorance because we know. We aspire to know because we have an innate itch and a desire that we seek to satisfy. Our implied anthropology then, believes in the high agency of man to direct his education to scratch the itch of learning.
Unfortunately, experience shows that parents undermine this. They confine their children’s intellectual aptitude to schoolwork. They regard them as if learning is only good for the faraway future. But this compartmentalisation of life—which is unusual and recent—may hamper their growth: we may know in part, but we live in full. To that end, children must be allowed to use their intellect to enjoy all that God has created for them to enjoy. This includes enjoying the use of reason in moral instruction and physical labour like doing chores in the house. The adults that children will become ought to be respected from the onset. And they must be tutored with the image of that adult in view. You must allow them to exercise agency and also engage their rational in conversation the way you would an adult; perhaps with a few changes.
If the rational apparatus in man thirsts for truth and knowledge, children must be allowed to use this apparatus too. We must not put it off until a later time when they may have not mastered how to use this apparatus at all, leaving them at a disadvantage. The disadvantage, even for those who have had years and years of schooling, presents in adults as an unusual inability to tackle new subjects on their own, an inability to defend or refute an argument, and worse societally, we lament—despite the piling courses and certifications—the dearth of critical thinking. In a few words, I summarise this disadvantage as having dead agency. It is a pity.
This project is premised on agency; where “gaining agency is the capacity to do something differently from, or in addition to, the events that simply happen to you.”
Ironically, the world is always in demand of high-agency personalities and simultaneously doing everything to ensure that only a few emerge.
North Star
This project is not about techniques even though techniques may emerge. I understand that techniques for learning are fanciful and we want to use what works for others. However, I am not inclined to do so. What I offer is an explanation; a philosophy. A North Star. A why. We are not for psychological tricks and technological augmentation. Just the pure love of reading, discussing, and doing.
This programme is the application of foundational subjects in learning how to learn. No need to incorporate any new subjects or techniques; the old ones will do but with a fresh and the right perspective. It answers questions like “Why am I learning this?” “what will this do for me?” “how can I use this for other things?” “Can I become like Sherlock Holmes?”
It is fundamentally about mind and character. It is not about doing things in the world. It is about recovering the pure pleasure of learning. Yet, we will do things in the world—people with agency shine best when they do. That is why we include an entrepreneurship programme. Students must do as they learn because you learn best by doing.
We believe that the conventional way has put a premium on the wrong things. It has offered a false perspective. We have placed a premium on kids learning things at a particular age when in fact, we ought to be emphasizing kids picking up meta-skills relevant to their age. Parents want their children to learn so-so-and-so subjects at a particular age. When what the kids ought to be learning is a skill e.g memorisation, using those subjects as tools for accomplishing this—a two-in-one approach. The effect of this information-premium stance is that kids have a limited amount of time when they ought to master a subject rather than a skill. The premium is placed on the subject content when it should be on the metaskill or technique required to learn such a subject or others like it. Hence, kids find their ability to learn untransferable. And context-transfer — the ability to be able to find your way even when the context changes — is the mark of critical thinking. Unfortunately, many people are handicapped as soon as the context changes. “To postpone the acceptance of responsibility to a late date brings with it several psychological complications which, while they may interest the psychiatrist, are scarcely beneficial either to the individual or to society,” Dorothy Sayers says.
An instance of skill/technique that is required to learn a subject is patience in learning Mathematics. For sure we want our kids to know arithmetic. So we drill them in it. But what we are not drilling them on is how to be mathematicians. We are asking them to know and do maths. We are not urging them to be mathematicians. We are not training them to treat Mathematics as an art. The advantage of art is that, “when a person learns an art, he directs his attention to learning a skill, not content or information about a subject (even if that subject is called “art”)” (CIRCE)
My simple finding about doing good maths is that it is simply about patient pedantry. The ability to look at every tiny detail involved and follow every single step is the key. If you are missing something in Maths, it is because you are missing a key, howbeit small, detail.
Entrepreneurship Programme
The joke reigns today that to get a job as a 22-year-old, you need 25 years of working experience. Good joke but very telling. The only surprise I have here is that we do not know how to manage practical irony—which is why Literature is good for the mind.
The irony therein is that we keep kids at school—with the excuse that there are so many facts to learn—and expect that when they leave school, they will have working experience. This is wickedness. The effect of this wickedness is such that since doing improves agency, a prolonged period of not doing atrophies agency.
Perhaps there is a way out. And some institutions have started the process: making students work on projects that are meant to produce useful things. And we are taking the same route. It is our vision that anyone who becomes a part of this project chooses a project to work on—whether personally or in collaboration with others. The goal is to keep the fire lamp of agency burning; making students do things that are valuable for the real world and receiving real-time feedback instead of quarantined ones.
Additionally, this should afford the students money-making skills that should leave the pure love of learning uncorrupted. This is a big issue.
The issue is that because many people practice self-development with the goal of money-making, they stand a risk of corrupting their opinions, convictions, and integrity when they face money problems. Others, in a bid to keep up at work, find it impossible to read and learn for leisure—which is a good chief end—being exhausted without recourse. Entrepreneurship prevents that. If you are a learner and self-directed, entrepreneurship allows you to exercise both without corruption.
Thankfully, we recognise the place of mentorship and apprenticeship in this programme. We recognise that those who do should teach. That is why we facilitate a one-on-one as well as a cohort mentorship programme for anyone who selects a skill. They would be properly mentored holistically by the most relevant mentor in that area.
We appreciate the services of retired service men and elders who wish to impart their flames, knowledge, and wisdom to the younger folks. We realise that most elderly people prefer to keep giving back to the world than to be isolated without an opportunity to contribute and help raise generations to come. This is an opportunity for them to live as the sages that we think that they are by giving to those still young and hungry.
Resources and Articles
The Virtue Of Irrelevance (Quote: What we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence — Godfrey Harold Hardy)
An Algebraic Disposition (Quote: Algebra’s function in all these is to teach us how to depart from the sensational specific into the less-sensational general so that we are less deceived by appearances and fall less into the intellectual vice of reductionism.)
School is not education by Mortimer. J Adler (Quote: For more than 40 years, a controlling insight in my educational philosophy has been the recognition that no one has ever been - no one can ever be - educated in school or college.)
Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers (Quote: For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves, and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain)
Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education by David .V. Hicks (Quote: General curiosity, imagination in forming hypotheses, and method in testing them, then, mark the classical spirit of inquiry. This bent of mind allows the educated man to go on educating himself or extending the realms of knowledge for his fellows.)
The Abolition of Man by C.S Lewis: (Quote: In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.)
Community
Loneliness is a common ailment of our time. And we must not confuse solitude for loneliness. Great minds enjoy solitude for good purposes. However, loneliness still plagues people with agency. Being a part of the community solves that.
We do not merely respond to each other’s technical problems. But also the emotional and psychological needs of one another. As my friend said of the ideal intellectual sparring partner, “I want someone who I can discuss the serious and the light things of life with.” This is an opportunity to build lifelong relationships with immense potential for great things. Or you may just simply enjoy the friendship (not everything has to change the world one fell swoop at a time).
Summary
There is no putting forth a system of education without describing who the man is and what his ends are.
Adults that children will become ought to be respected from the onset. And they must be tutored with the image of that adult in view.
This programme is the application of foundational subjects in learning how to learn. It is about recovering the pure pleasure of learning.
Can I become like Sherlock Holmes?
To get a job as a 22-year-old, you need 25 years of working experience.
Mentorship and apprenticeship reign supreme.
People with high agency require community for the big and the small things. We will provide that.
The pure love of learning is a metaskill and we are restoring it.
Finito