The Whole Thing About Education

Since there are many different ideas about education, the following is offered as a starting point that might be agreed upon.

This discussion will be limited to what can be measured. Therefore, discussion involving mind does not belong. For a discussion involving mind, please find the relevant page elsewhere on this site.

Educators, commonly called teachers, educate by demonstrating how to live.

A frequently asked question among teachers is what to teach.

Many of us have developed our own answers to this question.

We have considered what knowledge would be good for people. We have looked at what minimum knowledge will be most beneficial to people and still be easy enough to learn.

We have looked at how to make knowledge easy to learn. There is a great deal of discussion along these lines with some great persuasiveness involved.

Certain particular questions stand out in these discussions.

        How do people learn?

        How do people teach?

        What is more important for people to learn?

      What is most important for people to learn?

The simple answers are:

People learn by practice at imitating. This practice can be imaginary, and the imitation can be imitation of imaginary things.

People teach by demonstrating. What do people demonstrate? We all demonstrate how we live. We demonstrate the behaviors that follow from the ideas we hold.

Language is more important to learn. What language is more important to learn? The languages most suited to ideas one wants to communicate are the languages that are most important to learn.

The most important thing to learn is compassion.

It used to be that certain teachers would not accept students until they had completed a number of years of three practices. These three practices were speaking only truth, not taking what belongs to another, and not doing harm.

These three are aspects of compassion.

Lying causes suffering. A compassionate person will not practice it.

Taking a thing someone is attached to causes suffering.

Harming someone is obviously not compassionate.

Religions have various injunctions against uncompassionate behavior.

Therefore, history and religion show the importance of compassion.

Without compassion, we will simply destroy ourselves and each other. We will do so in small ways and in big ways.

Very simply, if teachers have compassion for students, and demonstrate compassion for others, then students will learn compassion.  If a person is more strongly influenced by uncompassionate people, he will become intolerant of others.  If a person is more strongly influenced by compassionate people, then he will develop compassion.  The more strongly someone likes someone else, the more strongly he will be influenced by the one he likes. 

We want compassionate teachers.  How do we get them? We teach teachers compassion the same way we teach students compassion. We demonstrate to others as much as possible.

A difficulty is that truly compassionate people will be interested in what is best for a person, not what seems good according to social custom.  Only a compassionate person can recognize compassion. 

Getting compassionate teachers is difficult. 

Teaching teachers to be compassionate works.