The Pathway to an Authentic Education

The purpose of an authentic education cannot fully be described as simply the grasping of new concepts, the learning and absorbing of new information, or merely a broadening of the mind. Although these aspects are major components, they do not embody the essence and depth of its meaning.

The purpose of an authentic education is to gain enlightenment within ourselves. To gain this enlightenment, we must take personal responsibility to get to know ourselves in mind, body, spirit. To set this process in motion, we enter the university, as Mario Savio taught us, with the mindset that we are going there “to learn to question,” to expand, challenge, and at times change our perceptions of ourselves for own personal involvement.

The university is the place where we begin to question our motives, our intentions, our beliefs, our hopes, dreams, aspirations, and how we will face the giant world awaiting us. We question who we are, what we are, why we are, and what our purpose is in life. Questioning ourselves in this way kick starts our journey into self-discovery and self-exploration for the excavation of, as pointed out in The Port Huron Statement, “our unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity. This potential is essential for gaining human independence and with finding a meaning in life that is personally authentic.”

Through cultivating this new found potential, our individuality begins to shine through and we discover our once solid walls of limitation start to crumble. We connect to an inner creativity that is uniquely our own. We commence to speaking our own language, formulating our own ideas, constructing our own belief systems, and setting our own boundaries. We are alive and active and can no longer accept isolation, allow our creativity to be suppressed, or our thoughts and opinions to be stifled. The lever of stagnation has been pulled releasing an inner creativity that can no longer be confined and must express itself.

A true authentic education is not just about questioning ourselves. It’s about questioning the world around us; questioning the hierarchical and bureaucratic nature of American society; and questioning how the university administrators go along with society and industry. Mario Savio addresses this issue in his essay written in 1964 entitled, “An End To History” by saying, “The university is the place where people begin seriously to question the conditions of their existence and raise the issue of whether they can be committed to the society they have been born into.”

We question why the universities are more into status quo and producing product to meet the demands of industry as opposed to supporting the development of one’s unique individual qualities. We question why we do not have involvement in the decision making that directly concerns and affects our lives. We question why the curriculum does not embody the individual’s passion. For example, someone who aspires to be a mathematician would require several algebra classes.

But why should someone whose aspiration is to become an artist or musician be required to complete so many algebra classes? Why not include classes that will help cultivate their artistic abilities? Why should someone wanting to become an artist but can’t seem to grasp the concepts in algebra no matter how hard they try feel hopeless in ever obtaining that much desired degree in the arts? Why is the educational system set up to weed out certain individuals?

Is it a governmental way to keep what they consider to be the elite in control while suppressing everyone else? Shouldn’t we be permitted to have some kind of input as to what should be included or excluded from the curriculum? The most important question is, do we truly have equality and freedom within the confines of these bureaucracies and where is the true democracy? I think Mario Savio summed it up best with his statement, “The University is well structured, well tooled, to turn out people with all the sharp edges worn off, the well-rounded person.”

Asking these types of questions and at times becoming active in making a change in policy and program are highly important factors in obtaining an authentic education. Otherwise, we become molded into society the way society sees fit and lose all ability in making decisions for ourselves that ultimately determine the quality and direction in our lives. Our individuality is turned over to the bureaucrats, industries, and societal hierarchy. We become lost in the rat race wandering around aimlessly with no real purpose.

We will become as stated in “The Port Huron Statement,” “Students will leave college a little more tolerant than when they arrived but unchallenged in their values and political orientations. With the administrators ordering the institution and the faculty the curriculum, the student learns to accept elite rule within the university which conditions him to accept later societal forms of control.”

The choice of whether we choose to view education as simply a means of learning new information or as a means of gaining enlightenment and freedom within ourselves is ours to make. However, it is only through getting to know ourselves in mind, body, spirit, questioning ourselves and society, and self-cultivation of our hidden potential that we are able to fully connect to our individuality.

Making this connection allows us to live more from our individuality as opposed to our personality. A prime example of the differences in the two can be found in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. This act greatly reduced the instruction of gifted and talented programs, art, music, and other programs that support our individuality and placed focus on more math and reading for the creation of the systematic personality geared toward industry needs.

It creates an even greater need for us to connect to our individuality and not allow it to become suppressed. This is an important factor as the personality is the person in which we were taught to be by our parents, society, influence of our friends, etc. Our individuality is in essence, our spirit expressing itself. It is the person we truly are. It is this person that gives us meaning in life that is personally authentic. Obtaining an education in this way allows us to have purpose in our approach to life. This allows us to feel as though our efforts are of significant value and offer a contribution to the greater good of mankind in a way that is uniquely our own.