Poetic Justice writes “Be Careful Brethren” – A Message About Education from Martin Luther King Jr.
Poetic Justice is the blog of a Connecticut educator, poet and fellow education advocate and blogger. In honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday, she provides us with King’s words – “The Purpose of Education,” – written when the truth-teller was 18 years old and a student at Morehouse College.
King wrote;
As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life.Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of thePoetic Justice writes “Be Careful Brethren” – A Message About Education from Martin Luther King Jr. - Wait What?:
