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The Twelve Principles of Personal Leadership

Principle #2 – Continuous Education

-One Leader’s Perspective

By Greg Thomas

Education is one of the great pleasures and necessities of a rich abundant life in our modern age. To reach our fullest human potential, we need to understand the life long importance and value of a complete and continuous education. I am not simply talking about achieving a formal classroom education, but also a lifetime attitude and appreciation of informal education. The traditional view of education is one of attending a conventional institutional program taught in schools and universities. But a real education is a lifelong process which includes our experiences, relationships, family culture and lifestyle. These "real-life" activities exert a far greater influence and teach us more about living than formal schooling. Leaders are individuals who have an ongoing thirst for knowledge and have successfully blended a good formal education with what they have learned in the “school of hard knocks”!

Most people end their formal education upon graduation from high school, college or vocational school. But...think about this fact. We technically have the most educated population in the history of mankind! Most Western nations have made unbelievable achievements toward the elimination of illiteracy in their peoples. Even many third world nations have made impressive advances in the reduction of illiteracy. Yet, with all of these strides in formal education, we still see great misery, violence and depravity in all of these same nations... among so-called educated peoples. Why? As one college chancellor I remember stated, "Young people are being taught how to make a living, but not how to live!"

Education is not a venture that ends in our mid-twenties upon receiving a degree or diploma! Proper education should be an exciting continuous lifelong pursuit! Here's what Thomas Jefferson wrote about this pursuit in a letter he wrote in 1786. Notice the zeal he had to acquire more knowledge of the world around him…

"Ever in our power, always leading us to something new, never cloying, we ride, serene and sublime, above the concerns of this mortal world, contemplating truth and nature, matter and motion, the laws which bind up their existence, and that Eternal being who made and bound them up by these laws. Let this be our employ."

Allow me to give you a brief example of how a budding leader should be actively interested in a continuing educational process. Above I quoted a statement made by Thomas Jefferson. Within his statement, he used the word "cloying"...as in the phrase, "never cloying". When you read this word, did you know what its meaning is? I certainly didn't the first time I read this statement! It's the descendant of an Old English word which means doing something "excessive to the point of being distasteful". Jefferson loved knowledge and was passionate about science and nature, but not to the point of excess by excluding his other personal responsibilities.

When ordinary people come across a word they are not familiar with or understand, they usually ignore it, or guess at it's meaning by the message’s content. However, when you appreciate the importance of engaging in a lifelong educational experience, these unknown words become interesting discoveries! Begin to take the time to expand your world. When you discover a word you don't understand, open a dictionary and find out about a powerful new word which can help you to express your thoughts more clearly and deeply.

To Jefferson, education was an exciting adventure and he pursued it with a passion. Within his lifetime he was an accomplished lawyer, statesman, politician, author, inventor, botanist, architect and educator. How have you viewed the importance of education in your life? To examine the importance of education in our lives we need to view this pursuit as two different phases of life. The first is our "formal" education and the second is what we will call our informal or continuing educational process. In this monthly article we will primarily focus on the formal phase!

In the 1970's, a stimulating book was written about education entitled "What Do I Do Monday", written by John Holt. Early in the book, Mr. Holt discusses the personal importance of education. Here's what he writes in the third chapter.

"Let us think of ourselves, then, as living, not in two, but in three or even four different Worlds.

World one is the World inside my skin.

World two is what I might call "My World," the world I have been in and know, the world of my mental model. This world is made up of places, people, experiences, events, what I believe, what I expect. While I live, this world is a part of me, always with me. When I die it will disappear, cease to exist. There will never be another one quite like it. I can try to talk or write about it, or express it or part of it in art or music or in other ways. But other people can get from me only what I can express about about my world. I cannot share that world directly with anyone.

World Three is something different. It is, for my friend, the world on the other side of the door.

It is the world I know of, or know something about, but do not know, have not seen or experienced. It has in it all the places I have heard about, but not been to; all the people I have heard about, but not known; all the things I know men have done, and that I might do, but have not done. It is the world of the possible.

World Four is made up of all those things or possibilities that I have not heard of or even imagined."...There are possibilities that are so far from possible that it is hard to think about them at all."

Most people get to merely live in the first two worlds that Holt discusses here. However, visionary leaders find a way to expand their lives into worlds three and four. This becomes a constant pursuit and adventure in much the same way as Jefferson described it.

In chapter 7, Holt continues to make the following comments about the process of learning.

"Learning is a growing out into the world or worlds around us. We can only grow from where we are. If we don't know where we are, or if we feel that we are not any place, we can hardly move at all, not with any sense of direction or purpose. When we look at a map to find out how to get somewhere, we look first for something that says, "You are here." Or we say to someone, "Where are we on this map?" If we cannot find ourselves on the map, we cannot use it to move. It is no good to us."

Let’s look more closely at a history of "formal" education. For most of us in the Western world, our formal education begins in childhood around age four and continues until late teens or into our twenties. This emphasis of a formal education is a recent concept in the history of civilization. Have you ever considered how long and hard civilization has struggled to provide the educational institutions we take for granted today? To help us appreciate how far mankind has come, and how fortunate we are today, let’s take a brief look at the history of education...

Beginning in the 3rd millennium BC, formal education became an important function of the empires of ancient Egypt and Sumer. Archaeological evidence reveals it was the priests who controlled education and chose certain young men to learn astronomy, architecture, mathematics, writing and government. These young men were destined to become the priests, builders, political rulers and clerics of their society.

Ancient Hebrew education was also formalized and centered on the study of the Torah. The Dead Sea Scrolls have provided much information about the significance of education in Jewish society. Of course the importance of education has been known among most ancient peoples and nations. Around 1000 BC China developed the "Hundred Schools of Thought". At first, education in Ancient China was only available to the nobles and rulers. After about 500 BC it was also available to officials and the wealthier classes. By 400 BC education was centered around four different schools of thought and was conducted in private homes. Confucianism has been the most enduring of these "schools" over the centuries. Ancient India also has a proud history of education including the development of formal apprenticeship systems.

However, for the modern Western world, the ancient Greek "City-States" had a most important influence. Ancient Sparta stressed the training of boys to prepare for military service. Academic training was provided by private tutors. The Athenian "City-State" was very advanced for it's time and age.

They stressed educating the complete individual. Tutors were hired to teach philosophy, mathematics, science, poetry, writing and gymnastics to young Athenians. In the 5th Century BC, great educators such as Protagoras taught ethics, politics, and rhetoric. The philosopher Socrates even engaged his students in dialogue while teaching his courses and asking for no fee. By 387 BC, Plato who was a student of Socrates, established the first university called the Academy. Another university called the Lyceum was founded in 335 BC by Aristotle. Both Plato and Aristotle greatly influenced and dominated educational thought for millennia including the modern age.

Most educational systems in the Western world have imitated the model established by Plato in 380 BC. Plato believed in dividing people into groups according to their ability to assimilate intellectual and abstract knowledge. He encouraged a system in which the most teachable were to receive the most education. Those with less intellectual talents would become warriors, and those with the least ability would receive the least training and become workers. Sounds a lot like our Western society today, doesn't it? Well...at least I now know why I have been designated to be a “worker”! Let's continue with our history.

Ancient Roman culture copied much of its educational structure from the Greeks. Roman boys were given a general education which included geometry, music, logic, history, linguistics and literature. Roman girls were offered only an elementary education. After the fall of Rome the empire was divided into two distinct empires. The Eastern empire continued to grow as a intellectual and educational center.

In 313 AD Emperor Constantine had proclaimed Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. Two decades later he moved the empire’s capital to Constantinople. Classical Greek and Latin traditions were studied there for many years in the new capital. In the mid-5th century, the famous "seven liberal arts" were developed, which included grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry and music.

However, the Western empire entered the “Dark Ages” and education came to a virtual standstill! This period of time would last from the fall of Rome until about 770 AD. During these Dark Ages, very little formal education existed. Most education was solely religious and taught in the monasteries. However, during the reign of Charlemagne, this stagnation began to change. He desired to create a great Christian empire of Germanic peoples. To accomplish this, he invited the great English educator Alcuin to establish a "palace school" to be a model throughout the empire. But most education at this time continued to be controlled by the Church. In early medieval Europe, the nobles began to control some aspects of education, but the Church still maintained the greatest influence as Universities were created in Western Europe. Prominent institutions like Notre Dame, University of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge came into existence during this time. But education had moved slowly, and had actually lagged behind other cultures, as Europeans would soon painfully find out.

Muhammad had founded Islam in the 7th Century. By the middle of the next century, this new religion had spread from its original roots in the near East to India and Spain. Education was freer to develop and expand in the Muslim Empire. Islamic schools were developed all over the major parts of the empire. It included reading, writing, mathematics and social improvement. Research centers and Universities were established in many cities. Muslim education certainly included the study of the Koran and religious thought. But, here was the big difference.. Islamic education also emphasized secular studies such as medicine, astronomy, architecture and engineering. Muslim scholars encouraged foreigners to visit their empire and translated the great European classics into Arabic. There was a free-flowing interchange of ideas in the Islamic world. The studies of medicine and mathematics were strongly developed. For generations, Christian and Jewish scholars worked alongside Islamic scholars in Spain and Baghdad. Europe slowly became aware of its educational inferiority through scholarship, war and social contact with the Islamic world. Europe struggled to make up for lost time.

Then in 1436 AD, an invention occurred which would change the world forever! It was the development of moveable "printing" type. For the first time in history, it was now possible to publish books more cheaply, quickly, and widely and in large quantities. As fate would have it, other great changes were also occurring in Europe. It was time for the Renaissance and Reformation to begin. The Renaissance began in Italy with the development of humanistic literature. Europe was ripe for change and the Renaissance spread throughout all of Western Europe. Humanistic schools for the aristocracy were founded in England, Italy and France. In Germany, a new concept known as a Gymnasium was introduced.

By the 15th century new ideas were being debated and challenged in the European Universities. Church religious and secular authority was being discussed and debated openly in these University forums. The invention of the printing press made these dissenting ideas available to large numbers of people. The Protestant Reformation began at this time led by Martin Luther. Both Luther and John Calvin believed it was important for all Christians to read the scriptures. To accomplish this, common people would need to be literate. They both urged the state to establish educational systems for the ordinary citizen. Soon a counter-reformation occurred within the Catholic Church to encourage reform and educational development for a broader range of people.

In Spanish Latin America, missionaries began elementary schools in the 16th century. Papal decrees and Royal colonial governments founded universities in Mexico in 1551, Peru in 1551, Columbia in 1573 and Argentina in 1613. At the British colonies in North America, education was centered on religion. As early as 1642 a statute was passed in the colony of Massachusetts requiring that children be taught to read. This of course, was a result of the Protestant emphasis on education to literally read the scriptures. In 1647 another statute was passed requiring every community to establish a primary school, and larger communities to establish secondary schools. It was also around this time that the earliest colleges were founded in British North America, including Harvard in 1636, William and Mary in 1693 and Yale in 1701.

Studies in these institutions included history, Latin, Greek, Hebrew. ethics, grammar, rhetoric and mathematics. Religion continued to be the primary motivating source and provider of education in Western Europe and the America's. Little science was taught in schools or most Universities before the 18th Century. The common curricula consisted of reading, grammar, writing, history, music, mathematics and religion. After the 18th century, advanced scientific knowledge was taught in many schools and Universities.

It was during the 19th Century that our modern national school systems began to develop. New theories developed in Switzerland pushed for the integration of both intellectual and physical development to develop the complete personality. In Germany, the "kindergarten" movement began, and a belief that education should be a blending of one's subject matter with social experiences and interests. During this century, education became more structured in Europe and an explosive growth occurred in the number of Universities. The European colonial powers spread their educational concepts around the world based on those in their homelands. Their desire was to provide the colonies with their own native teachers, doctors, nurses, clerks and other professions.

During the 20th century, major advances were accomplished in formal education. In the early part of our century much experimentation occurred. After World War II, European educators and politicians renewed their efforts to provide a high-quality education for all of their citizens. In the United States, kindergarten was introduced and curricula were changed to allow children to be taught as individuals. More recent developments have included a growth in junior and community colleges, vocational schools and online education.

The second half of the past century witnessed many of the world’s developing nations committed to educating their children with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, the United States and other Western nations have actually experienced deterioration in educational quality! The "SAT" and other evaluative tests have shown a decline in student achievement over the past few decades. At the same time our schools have become burdened with the same social problems which exist in society including lawlessness, drugs, sexual permissiveness and apathy. At one time schools were an emotional and mental sanctuary for younger students; today most sadly mirror the diseases of our society.

I hope this short history gives you a deeper appreciation of mankind’s long struggle to formally educate people. The purpose of a formal education should be to provide us with an expanded understanding of the world around us. It is indeed a rare privilege to be alive at this time in human history and enjoy the opportunities an education provides us. History, Mathematics, the Arts, Sciences and Religion are all intended to provide a balanced perspective of where humanity has been, where we are now, and what we should aspire to be. Unfortunately, because of the breakdown of some important cultural institutions, our modern educational system has become stressed to the breaking point! I am sure that you have heard of the proverbial 3 R's of education...reading, writing and (a)rithmatic!

Our culture and educational systems needs to immediately add two other R's to our formal educational institutions. These additional "R's" are reasoning and responsibility. Neither of these essential traits can simply be taught in a book. They used to be primarily taught in the home and in our religious institutions. But since the breakdown of both these traditional structures has occurred, a tremendous void has been created in our modern educational systems. We will discuss these two additional R's to a greater degree later. However, let's first talk about the importance of achieving a sound formal education. These are two qualities that today’s leaders need to appreciate and model.

The very word “education” means to instruct and discipline. One of the most positive attributes of modern civilization has been to provide a means of education for its people. Education is personal freedom. The ability to read and write gives people a window to brave new worlds and opportunities they would otherwise never experience. A balanced formal education is one of the greatest gifts any person can ever receive. If you have been blessed to receive one, you are a privileged member of an earthly minority.

Do you remember the analogies we used in the first principle about establishing proper goals? We used the analogy of a farmer planting his seed and how important it is for the farmer to use the proper planting methods to insure an abundant crop. A successful farmer knows he must be educated in his field. He understands the value of learning right planting methods, soil and weather conditions. He prepares to be successful. How about you? Have you prepared through education to be successful in your career? Do you have the complete formal education needed to achieve your goals? Many successful companies in our modern age now require advanced degrees to even be invited to interview for some of the best jobs available!

Another analogy I used was that of building a home. I mentioned how our goals are the "blueprints" of how we construct our future. After the "blueprints" are complete, the next important step is to locate skilled craftsmen to actually build the structure. It requires educated and skilled individuals to properly design and build a home. In the same way, it will require skill and education for you to maximize your personal leadership! Any and all goals you establish are incomplete unless you have the education to accomplish them. Even if you were to achieve them without a strong education, the lack of knowledge would make you vulnerable to losing all you have accomplished by either neglect or faulty decision-making.

What do I mean when I say a strong or complete education? This is an education that develops the whole person. A complete education includes formal studies, personality and character development and self-discipline. Many people in our modern nations receive a formal education, but the lack of social skills, character or self-discipline leads to their demise. Look closely at our entertainment and sports industries! Some people who received adequate formal educations find quick success, only to lose it all... because of a lack of character or self-discipline. A complete education recognizes the absolute importance of developing the entire mind, spirit and body continually.

Here's my main point regarding a formal education. It's highly important to be properly educated in order to reach your intended goals as we discussed in principle number one. Education is the preparation or "know-how" you acquire to reach your goals one step at a time. We can't simply reach our goals through instinct like other animals, we have to be taught to think, reason, construct, design and plan. We need to be educated...to be prepared for what we propose to do with our life! And after we achieve it, education helps us to maintain it.

Don't stop educating yourself simply because you have earned a degree or diploma! As Jefferson said, education is a life long pursuit. Keep sharp and always “stretching” yourself. Take a few classes at your local college or vocational school. Use these classes and the new knowledge gained from them to expand your world and your mind. Classroom settings are great environments for personal growth. Online education also provides an exciting new world of learning within internet classrooms. Learning, much like exercising, is easier when shared with others and performed regularly.

As I stated earlier, education includes not only a "formal education" but also a lifelong quest to further one’s knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Our formal education usually ends in our twenties, but for those who desire to lead others to a more meaningful future, a far greater process of education must continue for us to be successful. We will discuss the importance of our informal education in the next article.

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About the author:

Greg has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within the electrical distribution industry. Some of his positions have included being a National Sales Manager, National Marketing Manager and for the past 12 years that of Regional Sales Manager. He also has extensive experience in public speaking and has written articles for various publications. Greg has a Master of Arts degree in Leadership from Bellevue University where he presently serves as an adjunct professor teaching courses in business management and leadership. He is also the president and founder of weLEAD Incorporated.