MLK On a Proper Education

I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose.  A great majority of the so-called education people do not think logically and scientifically.  Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths.  To save men from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education.  Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from fiction.

The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.  But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society.  The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but no morals.

We must remember that intelligence is not enough.  Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education.  The complete education gives one not only the power of concentration but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.  The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.

I mourn for the current state of affairs in our education system and in our politics.

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