In his book, A story of Philosophy, Will Durant accurately describes the vastness of human knowledge today; also its unmanageable nature now that it has become so vast.
We know more and more and less and less.
~ xiv, Apologia Pro Libro Suo, second edition, The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant.
What he says is so evident all around us, we have specialists in every field, you name it and there's someone out there specialising in that very branch of study, science, or art. We see children in schools and scholars in universities studying a new revised curriculum every year, with better and more accurate facts.
Indeed knowledge is growing, but is understanding getting any better? Now that's the question I'd like to ask because what I think is happening here is that we've zoomed in so much that we don't remember or don't know at all what the whole picture is.
We've lost perspective. Why does this bother me? Rather, Why should this bother you? The thing with losing perspective is that you lose sense of direction, eventually lose motivation and one no longer knows what it was they were looking for, thereby losing purpose.
The purpose of knowledge, as I have understood it, has been to generate understanding that leads to wisdom. Yet today, more than ever, we see the masses focused on working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, plus 3 other side hustles and no one remembers the last time they felt truly happy and took a deep breath in complete stillness.
We have children that see their classmates not as friends but as competition that they need to take out in order to become a specialist, in order to become the best at something.
We have educators focused on sales and driving more business to the organisations they work for rather than educating their learners and making their learners self-reliant, autonomous learners.
We have political leaders and thought makers who don't understand the thoughts and needs and wants of those who elected them.
We have those who yearn to learn with no access to those who can help them learn and those who have acquired knowledge speak a language that common people don't understand.
In this chaos, the role of an educator or teacher is now to facilitate understanding. To understand jargon from books, journals, research papers, specialists, etc. and make it understandable for those willing to learn.
In one simple line, agreeing with Will Durant; the role of the modern educator and teacher is this: Humanisation of Human Knowledge.
To add to this, I give a beautiful excerpt from the prologue of The Story of Philosophy again.
"Let us not, then, be ashamed of teaching the people. Those jealous ones who guard their knowledge from the world have only themselves to blame if their exclusiveness and barbarous terminology have led the world to seek in books, in lectures, and in adult education, the instruction which they themselves failed to give. Let them be grateful that their halting efforts are aided by amateurs who love life enough to let it humanise their teaching. Perhaps each kind of teacher can be of aid to the other: the cautious scholar to check our enthusiasm with accuracy, and the enthusiast to pour warmth and blood into the fruits of scholarship. Between us we might build up in the world* an audience fit to listen to geniuses, and therefore, ready to produce them. We are all imperfect teachers, but we may be forgiven if we have advanced the matter a little, and have done our best. After us, better players will come."
Love,
Samarna
* (P.S. The word "world" from the excerpt above is not the word used in the prologue. In the prologue is says America. I have taken the liberty to change it to "world" for I believe it rightly fits.)
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