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Opinion
There
should be no doubt about power of education
April
4, 2005
Debate
continues over Governor Mark Sanford’s “Put Parents in Charge”
school proposal for South Carolina. That is only one among
many proposals made in recent years aimed at improving
education.
A lot of money has been spent, too, and there is
debate, also, on whether that has accomplished what spenders
said it would accomplish. Chances are, that debate will
continue since education has been a continuing issue year
after year for decades. Why would anyone think it would stop
now?
Despite everything, though, South Carolinians know
that without education nothing would be possible. In case
anyone needs any reminding, though, some pretty wise people
through the ages have helped put it in perspective, even for
those of us who sometimes may have wondered why things like
diagramming sentences made any sense. Is that even done
anymore, anywhere?
Consider some of the good advice:
“Human history becomes more and more a race between
education and catastrophe.” – Herbert George Wells
“The primary concern of American education today is
not the development of the appreciation of the ‘good life’ in
young gentlemen born to the purple … Our purpose is to
cultivate in the largest possible number of our future
citizens an appreciation of both the responsibilities and the
benefits which come to them because they are Americans and are
free.” – James Bryant Conant
“It was in making
education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory
on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was
practically settled.” – James Russell Lowell
“The very
spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in the felicity of
lighting on good education.” - Plutarch
“Perhaps the
most valuable result of all education is the ability to make
yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be
done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that
ought to be learned, and however early a man’s training
begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns
thoroughly.” – Thomas Henry Huxley
“The direction in
which education starts a man will determine his future life.”
- Plato
The needs are there, to be sure. Wise spending
is necessary and will help pave our way into tomorrow …..
unless taxpayers want a bumpy road.
Editorial expression in this feature represents
our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.
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