The Art Of Education

Vivian Thanh Ta

English 101

Greg Bachar

January 7, 2006

From my point of view, I think that Robert Henri’s thoughts on the essay “On Education” were very true. In his essay, he said, “It is up to the student whether he becomes a school-made man or whether he uses the school as a place of experience where there are both good and bad advices, where there are strengths and weaknesses, where there are facilities, and much information to be had from the instructors, and much to be gained by association with the other students.”

I think that this is very true because any person can go to school, but whether or not they make good use of it is their choice. Henri’s essay also includes many other true thoughts about education. Another one that I found says, “The self-educator judges his own course, judges advices, judges the evidences about him. He realizes that he is no longer an infant. He is already a man: has his own development in process.” This quote states that the “self-educator”, otherwise known as the “student” must learn to do his own things, figure out which advices are the best for him, and judge evidence about him.

The “student” is no longer an infant and must decide decisions on his own and develop the process of becoming a man. Henri’s essay mentions a lot about students knowing what is good for them and what is bad for them. They need to learn how to do their own things and accomplish their own goals by educating themselves instead of being educated. Just because they are attending a school doesn’t mean that they are going to be smart. To be smart, you need to educate yourself and learn to be a self-educator.

He mentions that, “The man who goes into a school to educate himself and not to be educated will get somewhere.” He says that a person going to school that is educating himself will get be successful, while the others who are waiting to be educated will never improve. I think the main idea of Henri’s essay is to encourage students to educate themselves and not expect to be educated all the time. They need to learn to rely more on themselves instead of others.

There are more differences than similarities between Henri’s essay and Daumal’s “Notes found among the Author’s Papers.” Daumal’s essay describes learning by action. He says “Art is here taken to mean knowledge realized in action.” This quote means that if you want to learn how to do something, then you must learn by performing it. Daumal also mentions that even though there are professional books done on Alpinism, it is still better to learn from experience. The quote to prove that goes like this, “Unquestionably their writings are more methodical and more complete, but they are difficult to follow until one has at least a bit of preliminary experience.”

The two authors are expressing their thoughts about education in their own ways. They both give examples of what they are saying and have different opinions. Henri is telling the readers that its best to become a self-educator because you won’t need to worry about whether your going to a good school or not. As a self-educator, Henri says that you won’t need good teachers to help you, all you need is the materials provided by the school so you can learn on your own.

The ones that had already become self-educators have already went through the fears of school. They should have learned what the schools have to offer, how much, and how little. Henri says that a school is a place of strengths and weaknesses. There are things that the school focuses on and there are things that are too little for the school to remember. Lots of advices appear in school too. Some advices help people in specific while they do nothing for others.

Daumal is telling the readers that you have to learn by experience and action. He expresses his idea by giving an example of a mountain climbing. He says that even if you read a book with unquestionable writing, you would still find it difficult to comprehend until you have at least had a little bit of preliminary experience. In other words, he is saying that it is better to learn by actually performing the activity than reading about it.

Daumal’s purpose of writing this essay is to help a beginner acquire the preliminary experience that is needed to learn about mountain climbing. In his essay, he briefly talks about thinking with your shoe and walking with your head. I think this phrase is telling climbers to be careful where they step in on the mountain because one false step can send them falling down the mountain.

He also tells us that if you slip or have a minor fall, you should get up immediately instead of lingering there until the pain goes away. Sometimes, the pain wouldn’t go away because your mind is concentrating on it. So if you get up immediately after the fall and start walking again, then you wouldn’t be thinking too much about the pain because your mind is already thinking about the top of the mountain. Daumal tells us that the body is constantly trying to get you to notice it and pity it.

It will try to alert your mind by its shiverings, breathlessness, palpitations, shudders, sweats, and cramps. If you don’t respond to any of these things, then the body will realize that it is not getting any attention and it will come into line and act more obedient. In his poem, he sounds like he is contradicting himself. First, he tells us that one can’t stay on the summit forever, then he says that after one climbs up the mountain, they will have to come down again, so there was no point in the first place. Second, he tells us that one can climb and see the from the top of the mountain, and one can then descend and see no longer, but one has still seen.

He sounds like he is contradicting himself because in the first part, he tells us that there is no point in climbing the mountain because all you do is climb up and down. Then in the second part, he says even though one has to climb up and down, you still get to have the memory of the view of the mountain. In the end, he says that even though you can no longer see, you can still remember. Every single person has his or her own opinion about the art of education. I agree with both author’s points of views. I think education should be first taught by someone. Having self-education is good, but it would be better to have someone that already knows the material to teach you.

That way, if you don’t understand something from a book, you can always ask someone else to explain it to you more thoroughly. Learning from experience is also a good way for the art of education. It’s just like having good memory. For example, if your teachers made you do beginning algebra in 12^th grade, you would be doing all of that through memory because your math teacher wouldn’t teach it to you anymore. They would expect your 6^th or 7^th grade teacher to teach it all to you already. So overall, I think self-education and learning from experience is good.