In classical times, the goal of education was not merely to gather knowledge but also wisdom to use that knowledge rightly. Schools increase our knowledge. We know that knowledge is power. Many of us take the educational route to our professions or jobs, for instance. But are occupational and academic skills and knowledge without wisdom enough?

Theodore Roosevelt said that "to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to create a menace to society." Can educators who help students to acquire the power that knowledge gives continue to shirk a corresponding responsibility to help them understand how to use that power for creative and constructive purposes rather than negative and destructive ones?

Children of today, through exposure from infancy to television, the internet and other mass media, are more knowledgeable than ever before. At an early age, they have seen and heard things that took their parents a lifetime to learn about. In an era of rampant bullying and increasing youth violence, it would be hard to argue that they are gaining wisdom at an equal pace.

Technical knowledge and instruction change with each generation. Skills that were important when your grandfather went to school may be irrelevant and obsolete today. The values that sustain a civilized society are eternal. No curriculum can claim any lasting value or relevance if if makes no attempt to address these.

Learn more about this author, Ron Hughes.
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