True Education

November 4, 2008 in Education by Greg | 5 comments

What is the aim of “true education”? David O. McKay taught:

David O. McKay Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end. Character is not the result of chance work but of continuous right thinking and right acting. True education seeks, then, to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men, combined with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love—men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life. It is regrettable, not to say deplorable, that modern education so little emphasizes these fundamental elements of true character. The principal aim of many of our schools and colleges seems to be to give the students purely intellectual attainments and to give but passing regard to the nobler and more necessary development along moral lines.1

Sources:

  1. McKay, David O. Gospel Ideals: Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1953. 440-441.↩

Share

  • BlinkList
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Diigo
  • email
  • Facebook
  • Faves
  • Fark
  • DZone
  • Mixx
  • PDF
  • Print
  • Propeller
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Buzz

Related posts

Tags: Character, David O. McKay, Purpose of Education

  1. Bryce HaymondNo Gravatar on November 4, 2008 at 6:56 pm

    Great quote! Our educational system is much too concerned with job skills to worry about character development, unfortunately.

  3. GregNo Gravatar on November 5, 2008 at 5:58 pm

    Yeah, I really like this quote too. I believe Dr. Nibley also said very similar things in some of his writings. Since I was a business undergrad, I well remember the dichotomy of working towards my undergraduate degree while absorbing as much as I could from any non-business course I could find the time to take.

  4. janeNo Gravatar on March 20, 2009 at 1:48 am

    The education on the formation of character is timeless as classic as the emphasis of Socrates and Plato in the Ancient Greece. It is tragic that today young students equate education with finding a job after graduation, going abroad for a greener pasture and be able to buy a house and lot and a car. This kind of aim in education reflects a mind that has surrendered to mediocrity.

  5. GregNo Gravatar on March 20, 2009 at 7:24 am

    @jane – thanks for your comments. I hope to dig a little deeper into the idea of education for a better lunch – as I believe Hugh W. Nibley mentioned – in future posts.