Our English Syllabus

Lewis talks about the purpose of school/college in this essay.  He says "education is essentially for freemen and vocational training for slaves" but that it is impossible for all education and no vocational training because people would not be able to do their jobs.  He emphasizes the importance of education as a means for leisure, for "human life means to [Lewis] the life of beings for whom the leisured activities of thought, art, literature, conversation are the end, and the preservation and propagation of life merely the means."

Though I understand where Lewis is coming from, I am not sure if I agree with Lewis completely about vocational training because I know people find great joy in their work. In their training, they can also be "educated," developing characteristics of "a good man."  I'm not quite sure what I think about Lewis's opinion on the purpose of human life.  Isn't our lives meant to serve and fellowship with the Lord? So yes, it does include those things Lewis mentioned but doesn't it encompass more?

Lewis goes on to describe a pupil in grade school to be a "mere candidate for humanity-an unregenerate little bundle of appetites which is to be kneaded and moulded into human shape" by his teachers while a university student should already be "human," "who is already beginning to follow learning for its own sake, and who attaches himself to an older student, not precisely to be taught, but to pick up what he can."  He should be a "fellow student" of the professors and his "business is to pursue knowledge." 

I agree with Lewis's view on a students' life before college and during college.  But I think our mentors, the people who have walked farther along this journey than we have, can still continue to mold us while we are human; I think we can still receive a formal education from them but we can choose what to do with this education.  This can also be applied to our spiritual life.  Before, we just listened to what our parents said and the environment in which we lived, but when we mature, or rather, to mature, we have to start examining, pursuing Christ ourselves.  A point I didn't consider while reading the essay before class was the possibility of overdoing the pursuit of knowledge.  We can go so far as to start ignoring and hurting others in the pursuit of it.

"The proper question for a freshman is not 'What will do me most good?' but 'What do I most want to know?'" This was statement struck me because I had been asking those same questions of myself.  Lewis overwhelmingly argues the pursuit of what most interests you and says college has "to offer will do him good unless he can be persuaded to forget all about self-improvement for three or four years, and to absorb himself in getting to know some part of reality, as it is in itself."  Lewis recognizes we are limited by the need of a job in the future but says we should ignore that.  While that is something I would love to do, I still think that is an important consideration, especially with responsibilities we have to other people.

"For the life of learning knows nothing of nicely balanced encyclopaedic arrangement.  Every one of the suggested subjects is infinite and, in its own way, covers the whole field of reality."  Lewis says this to argue against learning a little of many subjects, an education, a syllabus that others create.  "A perfect study of anything requires a knowledge of everything." Our human minds can only hold so much, so instead of trying to cover all types of topics, we should dive into a particle body of knowledge.  I agree with Lewis that we should know a topic really well but I think we also need to be well rounded.  We cannot be so specialized that we are stuck in this little bubble and know nothing about the world around us.  By understanding other fields, we can better relate to and help others.

With all of these points, Lewis's main argument seems to be that we must choose for ourselves what we want to learn and pursue.  We cannot let others dictate what is most important for us because it is not the same for everyone.  As Lewis says, "Do not tell me that you would sooner have a nice composite menu of dishes from half the world drawn up for you.  You are too old for that.  It is time you learned to wrestle with nature for yourself.  And whom will you trust to draw up the menu?  How do you know that in that very river which I would exclude as poisonous the fish you specially want, the undiscovered fish, is waiting?  And you would never find it if you let us select."  And so we must press on.