One of the oldest aims of education is to attempt to apprehend the essential nature of a thing. Indeed, as a precursor to some of our modern fields of research, philosophers engaged in lively discussions, seeking to know the essential attributes of matter, morality, and human personality. When applied to the perennial questions surrounding human nature and civic responsibility, the Ancients were clear about their lofty aim: to “know thyself” (Γνῶθι σεαυτόν). Inscribed on the Temple at Delphi, and popularized by Socrates, these words take on an ethical charge, containing in them a veritable exhortation for students to feel the weightiness of their mortality! —To know and understand themselves as less than the gods yet somehow more than animals. —To see themselves as moral agents capable of wide-ranging motives and actions for good or evil in the civic sphere.
But what would be the result if a person does not come to terms with their own nature? The results may well be calamitous for the individual, but a disaster to broader society. If our schools do not teach and train up youths to relish the good and resist the baser instincts—that is, if we do not actively engage in character formation aimed at civic virtue—we will raise up a generation of people who know not what they are by nature and are ignorant of the best parts of humanity.
As education (and culture broadly) continues a trajectory that sidelines virtue-formation, Johnny will likely never be adequately initiated into a full-orbed understanding of what he truly is–nor the power he holds within! For having never been taught to think of himself as a moral agent called to the civic enterprise, Johnny might well go on to become a teacher himself, or an influencer, or politician who, through the voice of a now-muted-conscience, would wield a power unlikely to benefit his fellows in society. For while observing the evils of the Second World War, C.S. Lewis penned those cautionary words: “I am doubtful whether history shows us one example of a man who, having stepped outside traditional morality and attained power, has used that power benevolently,” (Abolition of Man, p.66).
Thus, formation of the human inclination is no small priority in our day. We must teach the Johnnys and Sallys under our care to feel the worth of their soul! —To know the ins and outs of the human heart and its capacity to seek out that which is good. —To also know themselves deeply as being vulnerable to deceitful vices, and to know how to combat the baser instincts. Their future civic duties shall depend on this.
Therefore, this is the ancient conversation we must enter as educators. But it is a goal pursued by giving them a grander vision designed to engage them “in the highest matters and the deepest questions of truth, justice, virtue, and beauty.” In striving to do this, Johnny will know himself much better in a way that will serve both himself and his country at large.
