Saturday, October 20, 2012

Education vs. Indulgence

An interesting passage from Whewell (Of a Liberal Education in General, p. 7):

The term Education especially implies, by its etymology, that character in the studies of the rising generation which I have attempted to describe: namely, that these studies draw forth and unfold a portion of our common human nature. They educe the elements of the Humanity which we have within us. The studies and occupations of the young are not properly called Education, merely because they draw out something, without considering whether it is an attribute of the race, or an accident of the individual. Young persons may be so employed and so treated, that their caprice, their self-will, their individual tastes and propensities, are educed and developed; but this is not Education. It is not the Education of a Man; for what is educed is not that which belongs to man as man, and connects man with man. It is not the Education of a man's Humanity, but the Indulgence of his Individuality.

He notes in a footnote that the actual etymological history is somewhat obscure; but, of course, he is only using it as a way of building a vocabulary for making his point. One interesting thing about it is that there are a lot of educational philosophies which would not count as educational in Whewell's sense.