Head and Tails: Einstein and Education

Most of us know his portrait, but are we familiar with the flip side of his coin?

A while back, a friend lent me a copy of the book Comment je vois le monde (Champs/Flammarion, 1979). It touches on a topic I have not read much about: Einstein's vision of life. Like many people, I was aware of his achievements in physics and the role he played in the creation of the atomic bomb. Simply said, I knew a lot about the physicist, but not much about the man.

This little book of 189 pages explains through letters, interviews and other writings, Einstein's perspective on a variety of topics: the meaning of life, pacifism, war, religion, good and evil, politics, economics and, of course, physics. One part of the book that particularly caught my attention was Einstein's exposing his views on education.

I have always been interested in questioning the place and role of educational institutions in our society. An individual with a Bachelor's degree will spend about 17 years of her life in school. If you consider that one usually starts Kindergarten at the age of 4 or 5 years old, a person's entire youth is dedicated to schooling. These are crucial years for the development of an individual. Here is some of what Einstein had to say about education (my own translation from French):

Learning a specific trade or a discipline is simply not enough. One would, in such a case, become more like a machine than a human being. By becoming exclusively competent in a narrow field, one starts resembling more a machine than a human. It is imperative that one also learns to use common sense to discover what actions are worth being pursued, to develop a sense of beauty and to get a deeper understanding of what is morally right. Without these essential tools, left only with professional skills, one resembles more a circus seal than a harmonious and well-developed being. One must learn to understand human motivations, fears, quarrels and beauty, to be able to determine one's role in within the community.

Such reflections are to be brought to students by live interactions with professors, as few are to be found in schoolbooks. [...] I recommend a lively culture rather than the dried up knowledge too often offered in philosophy and history books.

A system based on excessive competition and early specialisation, using efficiency as a pretext, kills the free spirit, forbids a thriving cultural life and suppresses even possible progress in science. It is imperative, with the perspective of a perfect education in mind, to develop a deep sense of critical thinking. However, the weight of the mental load students have to carry, and the little free time they have to dispose of, transforms the real quest into a search for the superficial, while leaving aside the true cultural life. Education should be understood as a priceless gift, but never as painful constraint.

I would add that education emphasizing narrow specialization, creates a society with poor cultural life which is left to thrive solely on productivity and economic factors. This kind of education enables a select few to control and manipulate the masses, in ways which benefit themselves (i.e. the controlling elite).

Specialists are like the fingers and toes of a big body - our society. They do their things really well. A toe keeps the balance of the body when it walks, or is perfect for a morning wiggle! A finger can scratch a back quite effectively, indeed. But does a lone toe or a finger have any idea that there is a head? Does it know that the brain is actually controlling its every movement? I'll bet the toes and fingers think they possess self-control and freedom...

In the recent years we've seen universities creating interdisciplinary programs. I think this may be one way we can encourage freedom of thinking. Individuals having a broader range of knowledge may be able to make better, more sustainable decisions.

The unfortunate side to these progressive programs is that, for the moment, only a handful of students will get to implement those interdisciplinary skills in the work world. For the most part, work is still based on short-term economic factors. As a part of a large system where living organisms are interdependent, we are all responsible for personally, and communally, assessing the impacts of our actions, and making decisions based on those impacts.

These actions range from daily personal activities to planet-wide decisions: from science to ecological issues, from health to ethics, from war to communications. Einstein writes:

It is imperative, for the harmonious progress of sciences and cultural life, that ideas and discoveries circulate freely. In my view, the interventions of political powers [...] have already spawned a disaster when it comes to the free communication between individuals.

Einstein is referring here to the war-inclined, mid-century German Government, which was, as one might imagine, rather heavy on information control. Using the term "political powers" in current geo-political climates, inevitably brings into the discussion powerful multinational corporations. The issue of free circulation of ideas becomes an even more tragic situation, particularly in the way the copyrights laws function. New discoveries are kept as the greatest of secrets until they reach the production stage or beyond. These situations are generally profitable only to a handful of individuals.

One of the first items to appear in this book provides insight essential in understanding Einstein, the man. The following is his response to the question, "Based on what criteria should one be judged?"

In my view, only one criterion is necessary to judge a person: to what extent, and for what reasons, has one liberated him/herself from the "I"?

Could this perspective, then, be applied to education? If so, with what results? Perhaps an alternate model for education could lead to a different kind of world: one where "I/me" becomes "us/we"...

External links related to this post

The World as I See It

Citadel Press/Kensington Publishing

The World as I See It

On amazon.ca

M.C. Escher's so-called impossible structures

M.C. Escher official website