It seems
to me that education has a two-fold
function to perform in the life of man
and in society: the one is utility and
the other is culture. Education must
enable a man to become more efficient,
to achieve with increasing facility the
legitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one for
quick, resolute and effective thinking.
To think incisively and to think for
one's self is very difficult. We are
prone to let our mental life become
invaded by legions of half truths,
prejudices, and propaganda. At this
point, I often wonder whether or not
education is fulfilling its purpose. A
great majority of the so-called educated
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
man 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 the 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 with 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 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.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Morehouse College, 1948