Of Being Anti-Pedantic

In The Count of Monte Cristo, the main character, Edmond Dantes, has an experience that has been encountered by countless millions in history. Unknowingly, through his ignorance, he is taken advantage of, to his detriment. In Edmonds case his treatment is quite severe. He languishes in a dungeon for thirteen years for a crime he didn’t commit.

On a chance encounter with another inmate, Edmond becomes a learned man through much study and tutoring from this man. Eventually he escapes from prison and using his new found knowledge, exacts revenge on all who put him there.

This is not a good example of what should be done with education, although it illustrates some blaring examples of life with and without a great education.  Montaigne in his essay on pedantry (the state of being a know-it-all) has much to say on the subject of real education. He writes of those who go to school, who upon returning home are found to be unemployable because their education was lacking. They memorized many useless facts and actually learned very little.

This same problem plagues the educational institutions of today. To clarify the problem, it is the responsibility of the student to become educated, not his school to educate him. Where we run into problems in the institutions is that the schools teach conformity rather than thinking. So, how is the high school or college graduate of 2012 to become educated?

Montaigne in the same essay gives some pointers. Among these are a few that could really help. One is, be curious. He writes, “Let an honest curiosity be suggested to his fancy of being inquisitive after everything:”

Another suggestion is to learn things for ourselves, not just trust that what someone else says about a subject is true. Through taking the time and effort to actually study a subject thoroughly we make it our own.

He likens our learning to the system of digestion in our bodies. If our minds have not broken a subject down to its smallest elements much as a stomach breaks down our food, then we have not learned the subject.

To digest a given subject one must do four things. First we must actually read or study the material, at its original source if possible. Next we need to contemplate or ponder what we have studied. Third we must find someone with whom we can discuss the subject, most advantageous would be a mentor who has gone before us on the path. Lastly, what we learn must be applied in our life or it will float away like a cloud in the wind.

If we will apply these few principles in the area of learning, a whole world will open to us that we have been missing because of our ignorance.