by ISRAEL RAMOS

On the Facebook political compass, I’m considered a little more liberal than many of my friends. I blame it on growing up in California. But although my views on the way that the country should be governed may align with the Left more than with the Right, I hesitate to identify with any political party because I feel that, in reality, none of them can really answer the challenges that we now face as a country or as the human race. In my view, the answer to society’s challenges are found in Adventism—the way it’s meant to be, the way it was designed to be. Allow me to explain.

Lately, we’ve been hearing news about the economic chaos challenging many of our banks and our society. The prices of goods and services have gone up, job availability is down, and CEOs have millions of dollars in salary and bonus packages. “Greed” is a word that has been used many times referencing the factors the led us to this struggling economy.

How is Adventism the answer? Through the way its educational values were meant to be: “True education does not ignore the value of scientific knowledge or literary acquirements; but ABOVE information it values power; above power, GOODNESS; above intellectual acquirements, CHARACTER. The world does not so much need men (and women) of great intellect as of noble character. Here is the power. It needs men in whom ability is controlled by steadfast principle” (Education 225, emphasis mine). According to this model of education, there are priorities in what students should be taught: first, goodness of character, and THEN intellectual acquirements.

Why is character more important than ability? It isn’t. It’s just that many of us don’t associate character as ability. Character is the ability to control ability. Character is wisdom, it is “the best use not only of one but of all our powers and acquirements…Thus, it covers the whole circle of obligation–to ourselves, to the world, and to God” (225).

On the topic of character, true education also teaches that there exists a circle of obligation. That means that the one educated is a debtor to their neighbor and to God. But how opposite to this principle are those taught to many today! Students go to school, in many cases, for one reason: to make money. And look at the place to which this has brought us! “Much of the education given is a perversion of the name. In true education the selfish ambition, the greed of power, THE DISREGARD FOR THE RIGHTS AND NEEDS OF HUMANITY, THAT ARE THE CURSE OF OUR WORLD, find a COUNTERINFLUENCE” (225-226). God’s system of education is designed to be a counterinfluence to society. While men go to good schools to get good jobs to make good money for themselves, true education seeks to develop the characters of the pupils to use their abilities to help others. How does that compare?

Students who are taught character understand dependence on God. This eliminates competition and promotes the highest development of every power in every pupil (the real “No Child Left Behind” initiative). In the end, the CEO and the local mechanic are both geniuses, content with their jobs because both find fulfillment in cheerfully carrying out their obligation to mankind and have been liberated from social constructions that place one above another because of their respective professions. Consequently, there are honest mechanics and selfless CEOs. The CEO understands her obligation to man and to God and thus seeks to use her means and influence to put others in contact with her #1 Partner. The gas prices are as low as they can be instead of as high as we can get them to be. God is first, others are second, and I’ll be taken care of.

Being successful at what they do, they are elected into public office, and we have people serving the state with ability controlled by character. But instead, what we have now is far from this ideal. And it all really started long before bad mortgages came into play. It started with failure to properly educate the leaders of government and enterprise (and ourselves).

The answers to our challenges will not come by giving more money to people whose character (or lack thereof) has been overcome by ability (or lack thereof). It will come by understanding that all along, “character building is the most important work ever entrusted to human beings; and never before was its diligent study so important as now” (225).

Priorities. Teach character above ability and, in the end, you actually get both.

WORKS CITED:
White, Ellen G. Education. 1903. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 1991.

Tags: Education

This entry was posted on May 11, 2009 at 10:50 AM and is filed under Library, Think Tank Discourse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.