MLK: ‘If we are not careful, our colleges will produce … close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists

Na terceira Segunda feira de janeiro os americanos celebram o nascimento de Martin Luther King Jr (15/01/29) e é um dos três feriados americanos em comemoração há uma pessoa

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_de_Martin_Luther_King

Dr. King estudo no Morehouse College em Atlanta e em Fevereiro de 1947 (portanto aos 18 anos) escreveu o artigo abaixo para o “The Maroon Tiger” (jornal acadêmico da sua Alma Mater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morehouse_College

Com os acalorados debates passionais que temos assistido neste período de pandemia, me vem a mente este magnífico artigo que após quase 65 anos após ter sido escrito, esta totalmente atualizado. Apenas como uma percepção pessoal, eu creio que o sistema de ingresso as faculdades, deu prioridade ao conhecimento e deixou em segundo plano a formação humanística e cultural (eu tentei compensar em parte isto, tendo cursado História na FFLVH da USP e Administração Hospitalar na FGV).

QUAL É O PROPÓSITO DA EDUCAÇÃO?

Eu sempre tive a ideia de que a educação é força motriz que faz cada individuo e por consequencia a sociedade evoluir.

Mas como escreve MLK, não é só isto, a educação tem pelo menos dois objetivos distintos:

1. O primeiro e o mais óbvio é o de formar as pessoas (MLK refere como “Utility” ou Eficiência.), e que vai permitir uma ascensão profissional, oxalá social e finalmente que cada um atinja seus objetivos de vida.
2. A outra é ensinar as pessoas a pensarem intensamente e CRITICAMENTE (Ariel, nosso filho que fez College em Columbia, com Major em Filosofia explica que estudar Filosofia ensina a pensar)

MLK escreve no texto que educação que apenas é apenas “Eficiente” pode se tornar a maior ameaça a nossa Sociedade. Ele conclui: “O mais perigoso criminoso pode ter recebido o dom do raciocínio, mas não tem moral.

Morehouse College Student Paper

https://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm

As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
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 ligitimate 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.

The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa key. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?

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.

If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, “brethren!” Be careful, teachers!