Jabez Wilson thinks he is learning something valuable
while he is copying the articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica,
but he is really only acquiring a temporary knowledge of certain facts, most of which
will eventually be forgotten. A real education does not consist of the accumulation of a
lot of knowledge, much of which is better off kept inside a book like the
Encyclopedia Britannica. A real education includes thinking and
discussing as well as simply reading. A person who aspires to be educated should think
about what he or she is reading and deal with it interactively--that is, to relate it to
his or her own experience and common sense. As Bacon says in his essay "Of Studies, one
should "weigh and consider" what is being read.
Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire
them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom
without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute;
nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and
consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed
and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but
not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention.
Wilson will
always be simple and naive because he is lacking in intelligence. He could copy all the
articles in all the volumes of the big encyclopedia and still be simple-minded and
uneducated. Possibly the most valuable lesson he learned from his eight weeks of copying
from the first volume of the encyclopedia occurred when he found the notice that the
Red-Headed League had been dissolved. That was when he started using his own brain for
something besides a repository for factual information, most of which was of no
practical use to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment