On Our Civic Duty to Self Education: Pt. 1
I've been trying to write this essay for months now, but instead of trying to cram this incredibly dense topic into one neat post, I think it makes more sense to break this into a series smaller posts
It is my belief that there is no possibility for a country to rightfully call itself a democratic nation without having an adequately educated public. What this means, among other things, is that it is essential for a nation to have free and accessible public education for all of it's citizens. This education system must leave each student with a fully realized understanding of the liberal arts and sciences and equip them with the knowledge, history, and training needed to participate in all of their civic duties. Without this, an election cannot be considered free or fair under the lack of critical understanding on the part of the voter. This, in turn, leads to elections that serve only as popularity contests, and politicians only needing to play rhetorical games for their audiences.
An educated public is one that cannot easily be controlled. Through a thorough training in the liberal arts, a public in ensured the ability to think for their own selves. Education gives us the vocabulary necessary to grapple with the ideas used to shape the world around us. By having the ability to communicate in this way, we no longer rely solely on the interpretations of other individuals or institutions. We stand on our own two feet and are able to choose our own paths forward, even when they are untrodden.
In this post I want to talk about a few topics that I find most pressing while offering actionable steps to help incorporate education into ones life.
A Change in Our Culture
First, I believe the way forward for this is to create a change within our culture. We've fallen into an anti-intellectual mindset where reading, even for pleasure, stopped being the norm. This change has to do, in part, with the association that adults have with reading stemming from the nature of how it is taught and dealt with in schools, coupled with the rise of easier forms of entertainment. We have to commit to the effort of reading and forgo the convenience of the screen. We need to hold ourselves and our loved ones to a higher standard.
A struggle that I see constantly is that young people do not read. As a 7th grade english teacher, I can usually count on one hand the number of kids who read for pleasure in a given year, and while parents have asked before how to get their child to read more, the first question is usually "what do they see you doing at home?" If we want a functionally literate next generation, we need to lead by example.
Actionable Steps:
1) Set a reading goal for yourself. Make it monthly and yearly, but avoid daily or weekly to afford yourself some wiggle room. If your goals are too rigid, they will be harder to keep up with.
2) Track your screen time. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the screen/phone addiction that we've all developed post pandemic, but if you're spending hours a day on your phone, you're wasting time that could be spent reading or learning. Plus remember what I said about being a good example for the next generation. For tips on this I recommend people like Cal Newport who can talk much more eloquently on the subject.
3) Start a reading group with friends, or join a public reading group. This helps with accountability and consistency. Added benefit is that it can help you find recommendations that you may not have otherwise found. More on this in a near future post.
Education outside of Institutions
In order for things to truly change for all of us, they have to change in a place where we all are. The issue with the Academy as the center for higher education is that it inherently is an exclusionary body. Every adult needs an education outside of the limitations of an institution. While it is my firm belief that higher education should be free and accessible for all people, that is not the current reality in my country, and it is only a liminal fix. Education should be in the public, in the home, and everywhere in between. It should last longer than a given program, and should amount to more than just a degree.
The main services an institution provides are their resources, and their shared community of commonality. The community aspect can be replicated, but does require more effort and attention. A college is an educational community that people opt into joining, whereas within our current societal structure, things to this regard and rigor are not as readily known or available. What is needed is to find, or create your learning community, ideally you will be involved in many.
The issue of educational resources is not their inaccessibility, but rather their unorganized nature out in the wild. Colleges and universities have the benefit of direction and collection of resources while the free resources, though abundant for those who learn to look for them, take a considerable amount of effort to amass. This involves utilizing free resources and public services proudly and frequently. Libraries should be a second home to us (I'm writing this from my local library as we speak). Online resources and communities exist and are patiently waiting for those with a passion to come and engage. Online college classes can be audited for no cost whatsoever. Even if you are without a computer or internet in your home, your local library can provide access to everything you need.
Actionable Steps:
1) Find reading lists online. There are hundreds of lists, some better than others, that can help you learn any subject. The first I ever seriously looked into was the Great Books of the Western World series by Encyclopedia Brittanica. It’s a good place to start but not to stop.
2) Steal from colleges and universities. Not literally, but many college and university websites will have loads of free resources including lecture notes, videos, syllabi, reading lists and more. MIT OCW
3) Audit classes. Websites like Coursera and EdX have courses that are free from major universities. Though none are credit baring and free.
4) Find your people. Find friends with similar interests and create study groups. Pick a topic and a subtopic, find a book or two that helps dive into it, meet once a month or more to discuss over drinks and snacks.
A Foundation for Personal Education:
This is something that I have not fully come to terms with. A fully educated citizen is something that I have not become, nor have even been successful in defining. My sneaking suspicion is that it may be a process that ends only in death*. There have been many models for the foundation of an educated citizen. Even our current k-12 public education system, in its broader strokes, is an attempt at this. Though I don't believe there is one perfect model, I do think that some are helpful in creating our own.
The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, for me, has been the conceptual model for that standard. The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences are as follow: The Trivium, which consists of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and the Quadrivium, consisting of Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. Basically, the Trivium amounts to learning how to learn deeply, while the Quadrivium help you to understand the known universe by examining numbers in their progressive forms. This of course is an incredible over simplification and will require a much more in depth investigation to do any semblance of justice. The idea is that once the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences have been mastered, an individual would have the ability to tackle and work through any problem they encounter.
The point of this Substack is to find that standard, whether it's possible or not. Everyone on their own should evaluate what they believe a responsible citizen should know and be skilled in, and strive for that until their last breath.
*Unless Socrates is right about the afterlife in which case the journey continues.
Actionable Steps:
1) Subscribe to my Substack. Sorry, but I'd like to start a family and being a teacher is about as lucrative as they say. As we move forward into this direction, it's my hope to document my progress in finding this standard for myself through free resources, book lists of my own, discussions, community questions, and much more. By subscribing, you're letting me know I'm headed in the right direction and will get to participate in a real community of people who care about their community, care about themselves, and care about the world around them. Thank you so much for reading if you made it this far.