We all claim to be civilized, but civilization can only be the fruit of centuries of nurture and education, which is more than the accomplishment of a few intellectually brilliant souls who are endowed with the power to light up the dark night sky of primitive humanity with a few stars (or to brighten it up with a few darting meteoroids). The path from savagery to civilization is of course full of obstacles and twists. Teachings from the early pioneers and from established educational institutions, guidance from the intimate care of mothers and from the elevating minds of mentors, and instruction from informal apprenticeship and from organized school education are all patient and untiring efforts that constitute the force to spread the bounds of civilization inch by inch, and cultivate sensitivity and feelings in young hearts. Without love and care for the younger generation, without a sense of responsibility to pass on the human heritage of civilization or a commitment to cherish education as a public instrument rather than as a private means, human kind would have remained in the "wilderness," primitive and barbaric to a degree beyond imagination. All successful parents are parents who take the education of their children as their obligation; all successful teachers are teachers who take teaching as their cause, and all great thinkers are thinkers who take humanistic education (opening up the human mind to both reason and sensitivity) as their responsibility. This ideal of education had not changed till the middle of this century, till some decades ago.
Now things have changed, and things are still changing, drastically and completely. Many, many people, consciously and actively, or unconsciously and passively, join in the effort to pull education down from its unique place and put it on the same plane as other more everyday occupations to be treated as no different from one another. Today, the evils that prevail in other activities are finding their way into education, yet their supporters are not few in number. Likewise, the virtues of education, that are not to be found in other enterprises, are also fading away, left unattended or even wilfully suppressed. Today, it is common to find education politicized, industrialized, and commercialized. In its worst form, education is being put on show as if for a beauty contest. We care for little more than outward appearances.
Perhaps the ideal "to commit ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to educate people" has long become outdated. How many of today's educators, and in particular the leaders in administration, think seriously about the real meaning of education, devote themselves to improving the quality of education, and are not just bogged down under various sorts of pressure or tied up in trying to shun disgrace or embarrassment of one kind or another? Especially those who have the resources to make decisions on educational planning and budgeting, how many or them care about the long-term interests of society and do not merely look for short-term interests within a year or two or within their own term of office? How many of those involved in different levels of education see young children in school as the souls who will carry on the torch of human civilization in tomorrow's society, and as bridges of life which will extend human civilization--human reason and sensitivity --rather than treat them as figures in reports, pawns in short-term educational strategies, or even as tools for political and ideological games?
II
Education is a mission of the conscience. We cannot treat education in the abstract; nor can we conduct teaching through empty concepts. Too much abstract thinking will make our policy rigid, while an overemphasis on uniformity in concepts will easily lead to inflexibility. As a result, we have many reports to fill out, a large number of approval meetings to attend, and numerous levels of accountability--it has become a fashion that we are accountable not only to our superiors, but also our subordinates, not only to the left, but also to the right. Seldom do we hear the call for accountability to our own conscience and accountability to heaven and earth, but not just to personnel matters.
Indeed, today's educational policies, institutional set-up and atmosphere do not allow any place for the conscience of an educator. On the contrary, tedious regulations and procedures, coupled with lack of long-term vision or a desire for progress, are fertile grounds to produce abundant workers who feel comfortable living with red tape. Consequently, our education gets lost in the turbulence of business dealings, and makes little progress.
Let us imagine something for a moment: To what else do parents have to be accountable, except their own consciences and, perhaps, heaven and earth? Lip-service to accountability will only bring about "egalitarianism" and indifference to work, encouraging "window-dressing." When education is not based on conscience, and when the emotional and moral tie that binds the educator and the educated is severed, little is left for education to fulfill of its "hundred-year commitment to educating people." If the relationship between the teacher and students is not based on love as a starting point, but only considered as a job assignment, how can education serve its function to nurture the mind and the heart? Warning signs have already appeared. How can we expect education to forge good faith and true feelings between the educator and the educated, when it is not guided by conscience, love, or moral aspirations? Little more than lip-service is left when we find people "brow-beating" each other. Or, even worse, what we can find is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
We need to reflect upon whether our existing educational policies encourage attention to conscience or whether they lead to commercialism and industrialization. We also need to ask whether our philosophy of education aims at cultivating in the younger generation minds with high intellectual ability and hearts with moral integrity, or just at producing hands to fill vacancies and tools to meet the needs of local industrial and economic development. Will such an approach really succeed in education?
However impressive the figures on paper seem and however great the results in the reports claim, the declining standards of the freshmen reflect the need to improve our primary and secondary education. Similarly, the fact that our university graduates fall short of societal expectations for their moral and intellectual qualities points directly to a failure in university education.
What explanation do we have for such a phenomenon? To whom and to what should we be accountable?
III
Education is a calling of the conscience. Despite the neglect of our existing educational policy, the conscience is not something that can be easily destroyed by institutions. Human kind has for thousands of years endeavoured to cultivate the fruit of civilization. Created and reinforced by generations, civilized human nature cannot and will not be uprooted overnight. A political institution, whatever from it may take, cannot totally destroy the seeds of civilization, which have become so much a part of civilized human nature. By the same token, the conscience in education (including education of love and of reverence for the educator ) cannot be easily erased by any particular educational policy and practice. Today, we will find teachers at every level of the educational system who respect their profession, and work hard and unselfishly for it. The question is : Do our present educational policies and institutions provide enough room for the development of these good qualities? Can the virtues and qualities of the individual conscience endure and survive in the absence of institutional support and policy encouragement, particularly at a time when outward appearance and self-promotion mean everything?
IV
Education is a calling of the conscience, perhaps the last kind that human beings have.
The human conscience cannot be eradicated completely, though it may be overshadowed temporarily by other immediate interests. Healthy policies and practices tend to support our true conscience so that humanity can accomplish things of enduring significance. Unhealthy policies, on the other hand, serve only as a barrier to the conscience and an obstacle to the progress of civilization. Today, education has in general become the creature of the large-scale public institution. Under such circumstances, we need to guard against the valuing of routine rather than genuine work, against indulgence in mere window-dressing. Otherwise, instead of being a profession for bringing up the younger generation, education will become merely manoeuvres in a political game.
Private education is no longer in vogue today. Nevertheless, if the present public educational institution degenerates into a factory for the production of social tools, and fails to fulfil its function in nurturing a younger generation for the progress of civilization, sooner or later people with broader vision and greater depth of mind will stand up and fight for the true task of humanistic education.
After all, education is a calling of the conscience.