"Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?"
That's the name of a popular new game show.
The title actually is predicated on a misconception.
"Smarter" really doesn't mean "Possessed of Deeper Understanding".
What then does it mean?
It means, in this context anyway, "More knowledgeable".
Herein lies the flaw.
Our society is severely hampered now because we put a premium on Knowledge at the expense of Understanding.
As such, Math and Science have become key.
The Liberal Arts are in peril.
Why study History?
Why study English?
Why study Language?
China and the Far East are going to take over:
in every aspect,
in every respect,
in every suspect.
The West's Response:
We better get cracking on our Science and Math then!
Wait a second.
The Far East is ahead of us in many ways.
Including language.
The Chinese get that better than we - They Make everyone learn Chinese, Make them speak Their language, Make it Illegal to Speak Anything BUT their Language.
Including an understanding of History.
Their History is paramount.
Ours is but a drop in the bucket in comparison.
Of Life.
Of Philosophy.
Taoism.
Buddhism.
Hinduism.
And of never putting one discipline ahead of another.
To the exclusion of another.
They understand that there is a oneness about things.
That all disciplines are different facets of a oneness.
And that is where we in the West fail miserably.
We believe that Knowledge is Key.
In the Far East, where they believe the World was Created,
they already are ahead of us.
Because they're behind us.
They get what we don't.
Why?
Because we live in a society wherein Knowledge is mistaken for Understanding.
It's not just that the two are equated.
The One apparently is the Other.
The difficulty, however, is this:
Knowledge is one thing.
Understanding is something else.
We in the West believe that some types of Knowledge are MORE IMPORTANT than others.
That some types of Understanding are More Important than others.
We are in serious trouble.
We put ourselves in that predicament.
We have no one but ourselves to blame (after all, we have become experts in the Blame Game).
Here is where Education in the West Fails Miserably.
We do not see what real education is Not:
It is not a matter of knowing all the answers.
What then is Real Education a matter of?
Understanding the Question.