Instruction, Education, and Edification

When an elephant was brought to the town, a group of blind men decided to investigate.  As they felt their way around the animal, each one encountered a different part.  The one who touched the elephant's trunk declared, "This animal is much like a snake."  The who touched its ear believed it to be like a fan of some sort, and the man feeling the beast's leg said, "Surely this creature is most like a tree."  One of the men touched its side and said, "No, it is much more like a wall," and the one grabbing its tail said, "On the contrary, this beast is like a rope."  The last of group, grabbing hold of one of the tusks, proclaimed, "You are all wrong, for the creature is smooth and hard and is therefore most like a spear."

Such is the famous story found in Jain, Hindu, and Buddhist texts, and it applies to how many of us approach what we call education.  Under that broad term we often mean several, quite different things.  Each is important, and it would help if we gained some clarity by looking at each element more closely.

Instruction

Listing for struo in the Oxford Latin Dictionary

Our English word "instruction" is derived from the Latin verb struere, meaning "to set up."  In its compounded form instruere, it is often used to describe arranging troops on a battlefield.  Instruction is the most basic level of what we generically call education, but by this I do not mean it is of lesser importance.  It is fundamental to everything else.  Instruction sets things up.  Before students can explore calculus or Shakespearean sonnets, they must know basic math facts and how to read.  Instruction is about presenting facts.  It is about disseminating information.  Because this is the case, instruction can take place in any form.  You can list for me in an oral presentation the Presidents of the United States, or I can read that list in a book, and it really does not make much difference.  One person may prefer one method to another, but the method of knowledge acquisition does not matter much when the goal is merely acquiring facts.  Doing something with that knowledge is another endeavor entirely.

Education

Once again the Latin etymology of "education" is the clue to what is going on with this next stage.  Derived from the preposition ex, meaning "out of," and the verb ducere, meaning "to lead," education is a leading out, and this recalls Plato's Allegory of the Cave in Book 7 of his Republic.  Education involves leading someone out from the darkness of ignorance into the light of understanding.  It leads onward from the point of instruction.  When students have been instructed in basic math facts, they are then educated in the ways those facts can be used, from building a table to constructing the Artemis rockets.  This is where the humanity of teaching and learning becomes fundamental.  Through the shared journey of discovery and fueled by encouragement and inspiration, teachers and students alike go far beyond the acquisition of facts.  Cicero was thinking of this when in Pro Archiā 12 he encouraged people to take the knowledge they had gained through reading into the world where it could be put to work.

Ceteros pudeat si qui ita se litteris abdiderunt ut nihil ex eis possint neque ad communem adferre fructum neque in aspectum lucemque proferre. 

"Let others be ashamed if they have so hidden themselves in literature that they can offer nothing from it for the common good or can bring forth nothing into the light to be seen."

A good program of general education will involve both instruction and this specific understanding of education, but there is still another level, one that can be overlooked in the mad rush to college- and career-readiness.  It is also less often seen because of one, rare commodity necessary to bring it about.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

Edification

"Edification" is not a word heard much these days.  It is taken from the Latin verb aedificare, which means "to build," and although the Latin word could be used with physical structures, we would never say something like, "He is going to edify a storage shed in his back yard."  Edification has to do with the building up of a person.  It is soul work.  It seeks to help others achieve not merely their own dreams, but to become more than they have ever dreamed possible.  After students have been instructed in basic facts and educated from darkness into light, edification goes out of its way to usher them into the true, the good, and the beautiful.  Edification goes far beyond the written curriculum because no curriculum could know the particular needs of a particular student or class on a given day.  Edification works by inspiration, which is literally a breathing into.  As the Spirit or breath of God breathes into a teacher what He knows students need, that teacher who is receptive to such inspiration departs from the lesson plan to build into the students something more.  If all of this sounds a bit too spiritual, know that the word aedificare itself breaks down further into the root aedes, which often meant a temple or a sanctuary.

And what is that rare commodity needed for edification to take place?  It is love, which has little or nothing to do with emotions and is quite often strongly opposed to any positive feelings whatsoever.  The inspiration to edify causes the shifting and reorganizing of a lesson, or possibly even the abandonment of an activity, because there are only so many minutes in a class period, and it would be far easier to ignore the quiet urging and continue as planned.  Edification is not about foisting our own pet views on another and the perverse pleasure of getting others to think as we do.  It is about loving those we teach so much that we are willing to do more work and to make connections that may seemingly have nothing to do with the stated objective of the day but that have everything to do with a life well lived.  As Benjamin Jowett wrote in the preface to his 1881 translation of Thucydides regarding the work of the translator, it is necessary that "one who has drunk deeply from the original fountain should renew the love of it in the world, and once more present that old life, with its great ideas and great actions, its creations in politics and in art, like the distant remembrances of youth, before the delighted eyes of mankind."  Edification requires those who have drunk deeply from many sources.  It requires people who themselves have been instructed, educated, and edified to the point that they are willing to do anything to help others along that same journey

If you are a teacher, do you find yourself spending most of your time in instruction, education, or edification?  Remember that instruction is the foundation for the others, so do not rush to make judgments about the superiority of one of these over another.  If you are a student or parent, do you see all of these operating to some degree in your local school or homeschool?  All three are appropriate for people at any age and in any course of study.  It is the mark of what is generally classified as education when all three function together. 

Count No Man Blessed Until...

It is easy to look at someone and say, "Wow!  She really has everything together!  What a great life!"  It is easy as well to see another and say, "Ah, that poor wretch.  What a miserable life he has."  Yet a bit of ancient wisdom reminds us that we should not be hasty in making such pronouncements until we have seen the full span of a person's life.

Recalling Herodotus

Herodotus, 484-425 B.C.

I was in the drive-thru lane of a local restaurant with my daughter when I received the call that my Uncle Bob had passed away, and my immediate thought was of my mom.  She and her brother had always been close, but recently they had been talking by phone every day, and I knew she would take the loss hard.  My daughter and I immediately drove to her home to give her the news.

We sat around her kitchen table and, after the initial tears, began talking about Uncle Bob's life.  She recalled endless stories of how supportive he had always been, the father he was to his three children, and how he always had a book with him and was leading a book club right up to the time of his passing.  We talked of his faith in Jesus and that someone from his church had been coming to take him from his assisted living home for worship each Sunday.  Just before my daughter and I left, my mom said, "Bob was a good man."  I agreed and shared with her a famous bit from Herodotus.

Herodotus, known as the father of history, wrote his Histories in the 5th century B.C.  In Book 1 he tells of a discussion between Croesus, the king of Lydia and the richest man in the world, and the Athenian statesman Solon about what it means to be ὄλβιος, or happy/blessed.  Solon ends with a famous statement.

εἰ δὲ πρὸς τούτοισι ἔτι τελευτήσῃ τὸν βίον εὖ, οὗτος ἐκεῖνος τὸν σὺ ζητέεις, ὁ ὄβιος κεκλῆσθαι ἄξιος ἐστί: πρὶν δ᾽ ἂν τελευτήσῃ, ἐπισχεῖν, μηδὲ καλέειν κω ὄβιον ἀλλ᾽ εὐτυχέα.

If, in addition to these things, he still ends his life well, this is that man whom you seek, the one who is worthy to be called happy/blessed:  before he ends his life, refrain from calling him happy/blessed, but lucky.  (Histories 1.32.7)

Pressing On Toward The Mark

It is right that young people be told to think about and honor the dearly departed, but it is also right they give little thought to death itself.  Youth is the time of exuberance and perceived immortality.  This is as it should be, for the springtime of life in its physical, mental, and emotional aspects is one of daring creativity, of adventure, and even of risk.  One can hardly be a dreamer or swashbuckling adventurer while fixated by a morbid fascination with death.  The proper role of those in the middle to later years of life is, however, to ponder such things, to put life and death in their proper perspective, and having endeavored with the help of poetry and art and wisdom and faith to understand it all as best as possible, and to present that understanding to those who follow for consideration when their own time of pondering comes.

Solon was right.  Pronouncement about the happiness, which in its true sense means the blessedness, of a person's life can only be made after the race has been run.  Was the person "great out of the gate," so to speak, but not much for stamina?  The tortoise and hare come to mind here, as does what Paul wrote to the Philippians.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith -- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:8-14, ESV)

Looking back at the evidence, I can say that my Uncle Bob's was a life well lived, and I think Solon would be inclined to pronounce it as olbios.  I know that Uncle Bob would say it was blessed because of the work of Jesus Christ, whom, like Paul, he acknowledged as Lord.  One of the blessings of death for those who are alive is that it presents us with an occasion to do a bit of the pondering that is necessary to keeping our lives on track.  Are we headed toward a good end?  If so, how will we keep our endurance to finish well?  If not, what changes must we make?  Who are those who have finished well who can serve as models and standards by which to measure our progress?  When once we have completed such pondering, we must return to the business of living, for no race can be finished well or poorly that is not run at all.

Robert E. "Bob" Carlile
1934-2022

Why We Read Old Things

Many people talk about relevance in the world of education.  In particular, there is much discussion about choosing reading material that is relevant to the lives of students, and quite often this leads to two false assumptions.  The first is that relevant material must be immediately accessible by students, and the second, which is related to the first, is that it must be in their vernacular and therefore of recent origin.  If these two assumptions were accepted, however, students would not experience anything outside their native language or antedating their own birth by more than a few years.  The exploration of my Latin I students into the world of Roman paleography suggests to the contrary that there is much value in reading that which is old.

Paleography in The Modern Classroom

Paleography is the study of ancient forms of writing, and I have explored this for many years with public and private school Latin students.  This year my students, as they usually do, took a look at ancient writing and ancient writing materials through a website hosted by the University of Michigan (here, here, and here).  After this, they practiced reading and writing Old Roman Cursive before making their own imitation sheets of papyrus and reed pens.  With these they copied their choice from texts that we had read and became Romans for a day.  What was most striking, however, were their reflections on the experience.

Instructional video on making imitation papyrus sheets and reed pens

Fun "infomercial" about using ancient writing materials

What Students Have To Say

As part of a reflective component of this project, the students discussed why they chose the passages they did when using the writing materials they had made.  Whether it was a verse from the Bible or lines of from the Latin poets and philosophers, these texts touched the students in profound ways.  Their words are proof that relevance should not always and automatically be equated with what is colloquial and new.

"Tui animi compotes es ne quid fraudis stuprique ferocia pariat."

"Be master of your soul, lest your untamed spirit bring forth something deceitful and shameful."
Appius Claudius Caecus (355-275 B.C.)

When we first learned this quote I was extremely frustrated with myself, other people, everything.  After hearing this I truly took into consideration how being like this would not help anyone and would only bring shame like the quote said.  The quote helped me change my perspective when I needed it, so that's why I like it.

"Ab infantia sacras litteras nosti, quae te possunt instruere ad salutem, per fidem, quae est in Christo Iesu."

"From the time you were a child you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to instruct you for salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus."
2 Timothy 3:15

I chose this quote because it reminds me of my grandma and my dad and them being very religious and very persistent in making sure me and my other siblings/cousins have a strong faith.

"In ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum."

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of people."
John 1:4

The Latin text I used to complete my papyrus was from John 1:4.  I chose this passage because I found it so fascinating that God's view of his life is our life.  It seems almost like he's saying that the point of his life is to give us life.  God is putting us as human beings before his own life.  This is just one example of his love for us.

"Homo sum.  Humani nil alienum puto."

"I am a human being.  I think nothing human alien to me."
Publius Terentius Afer, 195-159 B.C.

I picked this because I like what he says.  I like how he said I am hum but nothing human is alien to me.  I think it is cool that back then not normal stuff was not that weird to people, but now if you do something weird you are like alien to people.

"Maledicus a malefico non distat nisi occasione."

"An evil speaker differs from an evil doer in nothing but opportunity."
Marcus Fabius Quintillianus, 35-100 A.D.

I chose this quote for my papyrus because it was my favorite quote we've had for this class.  I see the results of this quote all the time throughout my day, and in school.  People who talk bad about one another are no better than people who are actually mean through their actions.  Changing the way we hurt people is no different from the action itself.  An evil speaker is no different from someone who actually does evil.

"Et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis."

"And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
John 1:14

I chose this verse of the week because it was one of the first that we had ever learned in Latin class and this is one of the first things that we ever said in Latin, too.  So that part was pretty cool.  But I also chose this because it shows how God was talking about the word for a while and we were not sure what that word was until Jesus was born and we realized that the word was our salvation to get to heaven one day, and even though God loved His Son, He sent Him down to a cruel world and made Him just like us because He also loved HIs creations.  We were very blessed to have Jesus walk down here among us.

"Ego veni ut vitam habeant, et abundantius habeant."

"I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly."
John 10:10

I sometimes imagine what the world would be like if Adam and Eve never sinned in the Garden of Eden, and honestly I can't imagine it.  When we first went over this verse in class it was almost like God was speaking to me through it and telling me that instead of wondering what I can't have I should be grateful that He sent His Son down to die for us so that one day we all would hopefully make it to heaven and be reunited with Him again.

"Labor omnia vincit."

"Work conquers all."
Publius Vergilius Maro, 70-19 B.C.

I feel I connected to this quote in a way because of my horrible work ethic.  I know that if I get all my assignments done on time, I will have straight A's, but because of my lack of production, I often struggle in this area.  If I could just get my work done on time, I'd be slaying my classes.  This logic also transfers over to my extracurriculars, like band or Tae Kwon Do.  If I just put in the time and effort into learning new techniques, songs, forms, I could become much better at what I do.  Putting in the work to do things would allow me to "conquer" in all aspects of my life.

"Esse quam videri bonus."

"To be good rather than to seem good."
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, 86-35 B.C.

I chose this quote because I was really inspired to be a better person.  I felt that this quote really helped me to start being a better person to my family and friends.  I wanted people to know the real me and know I am a good person.  Some people may think I am a good person because I am Catholic, but I want them to actually know that I am a good person.  I feel that I need to be nicer to people and help them out more when I hear this quote.

"In ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum."

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of people."
John 1:4

I chose this quote because it has a personal meaning to me.  The quote talks about how Jesus is the life and he is the light of the people.  Jesus has been the light during some of my darkest and hardest times.  A few years ago I went through a difficult time where I had to have a lot of surgeries in a short period of time.  What was wrong with me was confusing and I had to trust God that he would light the path and show me the way out.  After my last surgery I remember feeling the biggest relief that it might have been over for now.  God showed me I can trust him and have faith that his plan is the true plan.