Norms & Nobility by David Hicks

Can we humanize the young by giving them a humanistic education? Can a child memorize endless passages of Shakespeare or Goethe and still turn out to be a beast? The answer to both questions is yes, because the intention of the learner, not the content of his lessons, is alone critical to the moral efficacy of education. The learner must want to be changed by his studies. He must read Shakespeare as a Christian reads his Bible. 'Whenever the prince picks up a book," advised Erasmus(1965), "he should do so not with the idea of gaining pleasure but of bettering himself by his reading. He who really wants to be better can easily find the means of becoming better., A great part of goodness is the desire to be good.' The greatest part of education is instilling in the young the desire to be good: a desire that sharpens and shapes their understanding, that motivates and sustains their curiosity, and that imbues their studies with transcendent value. To the pagan dictum that virtue is the fruit of learning, the Christian added, 'And learning is the fruit of virtue,' thereby interjecting a mystical element into the already complex relation between knowledge and responsibility. p. 98.