Education and a Free Society
Introduction
There
is an interesting conversation that takes place between Peter, Susan, and the
professor in The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe. The four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have
gone to live with an old professor because of World War II. One day while they
were playing hide and seek, Lucy stumbled upon a wardrobe and hid in it. While
moving to the back of the wardrobe, she discovered a whole new world. She has
adventures in this new world, Narnia, and comes back and excitedly tells the
others about it. The others thought she was pretending and later after much
arguing, check out Lucy’s wardrobe and find it to be an ordinary wardrobe. Lucy
is miserable and tries to forget about the whole experience. Not many days
later, they are playing hide and seek, Lucy reluctantly hides in the wardrobe
again. This time she is followed by Edmund and they both enter Narnia. Lucy is
excited when she finds Edmund in Narnia, and now she thinks the others will
have to believe her. Then Edmund still influenced by the Witch’s Turkish delight
does an awful thing. He tells the others he was just pretending with Lucy that
her Narnia was real. Peter and Susan are very upset and thought Lucy might be
losing her mind. So they decided to discuss the whole matter with the
professor. The professor asked them a series of Socratic questions. He wanted
to know in the past who were more truthful, Lucy or Edmund. Peter tells him,
“that’s the funny thing about it, sir, up till now, I have said Lucy every
time…” Then the professor asked Susan what she thought. She told him she would
say the same as Peter, but she adds:
“but this
couldn’t be true-all this about the wood and the Faun. That is more than I
know, said the professor, and a charge of lying against someone whom you have
always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed. We
were afraid it mightn’t be lying said Susan, we thought there might be
something wrong with Lucy. Madness, you mean? Said the Professor quite coolly.”
He told her that
she could put that out of her mind.
The Professor
said, “one has only to look at her and
talk to her and see that she is not mad.”
“But then, said Susan, and stopped.” He then
muttered,
“Half to
himself, logic. Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only
three possibilities: Either your sister
is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she
doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then
and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling
the truth” (C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe, 46-48).
In
another section, the professor tells the children that it is all in Plato you
know. Then he says, what do they teach them at these schools anyway? This
excerpt is used to illustrate C.S. Lewis’ concerns about modern education. This
paper will try to discover what C.S. Lewis can teach us about education and a
free society.
Liberal
Arts Education
Lewis received
an excellent liberal arts education both under the guidance of Kirkpatrick and
as a student of Oxford. Joel Heck notes that “the entire Oxford education was
based upon the medieval liberal arts curriculum” (Heck, Irrigating Deserts, 31). Lewis received three Firsts at Oxford: the
first in Greek and Latin texts; the second in ancient history and classical philosophy;
and the third in English language and literature. Lewis, therefore, was well versed in a liberal arts education
and well qualified to provide a liberal arts education to his students (Heck,
31).
According to Heck, Lewis thought “the purpose of education
… [was] to develop the character through developing the mind” (Heck, 32). Lewis
believed the development of the mind was accomplished through a liberal arts
education. In the Discarded Image, Lewis
wrote about the world-view of the Medieval period. He stated that a liberal
arts education was emphasized during this period and he affirmed this
prioritizing of the liberal arts. Lewis also affirmed learning as an end in
itself. “Lewis valued,” writes Heck, “knowledge as an end in itself–knowing
for the sake of knowing, learning for the sake of learning, knowledge that as
of yet had no practical value was most practical of all. A literary kind of
reader who receives a text rather than uses a text will likely be one who
values learning for its own sake” (Heck, 35).
Students attending college are usually more concerned
about what degree will help them make lots of money, rather than the degree
that will help them live well. Liberal Arts education is more about making a
good life. Lewis believed it to be different from job training and vocational
education. Liberal education is more about acquiring skills that will help you
to keep on learning the rest of your life. It is about engaging the great
ideas: truth, justice, beauty and others. It teaches us how to think, read,
speak, and think critically. It teaches us how to be human. Liberal arts
education is about the search for truth through the use of reason.
In addition, the liberal arts are thought of as the arts
of freedom. Historically, this was thought as the arts for free men, not
slaves. The liberal arts are chosen not out of necessity, but for the sake of
the “good life.” Lewis observes that
liberal comes from the Latin, liber, which means free. A liberal arts education
makes one free. He noted that “it changes the student from an unregenerate
little bundle of appetites into the good man and the good citizen” (Gregory
Dunn, “C.S. Lewis on Liberal Arts Education). When our actions are guided by
reason, we are most human-like. When our actions are controlled by our
appetites, we are more like animals. A liberal arts education should help us to
rule ourselves. It also helps us to exercise our duties, both publicly and
privately (Dunn, C.S. Lewis).
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