Babbitt(his critique of American culture) in 1922!)

I must change my original claim that I disagree with Leopold that "education is possibly a

process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth" if we take education in the terms above

(i.e. schooling or socialization). I can agree with Leopold that schooling and socialization can turn

us away from awareness of other awarenesses, objects or realities. There is, however, still a flaw

in the above statement other than that he makes no distinctions--he uses the word "probably". This

means that he was not sure, himself, that what he was saying was, in fact, true. He allows that it

may possibly even be the opposite! But, when Leopold then says (1949, pg. 158) that "education,

I fear is learning to see one thing by going blind to another," I become concerned--concerned that

education may not be properly understood. (Interestingly, my sister informed me that he himself

was a graduate of Yale University, bringing forth an apparent contradiction in that he apparently

valued his own education!)

In fact, I would claim the opposite, that education is the process of being made more

aware, of being tuned in to new ideas, experiences, and worlds (whether they be the worlds of

Mars or nature). Education, as it is properly understood, is the knowledge, development, and

awareness resulting form various experiences that can be empirical (observation and direct

experience, e.g. life experience) or vicarious in nature (knowledge from sources such as books,

language, math, and logic, i.e., not direct empirical experience). This type of education can be

obtained in the school by formal education (though this often does not occur until college for the

majority, in any true sense) or by any other of a variety of obvious means. This education of mind

differs from that of the "schooling" and socialization that we must infer Leopold was discussing, in

that its primary purpose is to expand the awareness of the mind by providing a large array of

information and experience. It also does not logically follow that by learning to see one thing we

go blind to another, after all, education is the process of building awareness, not loosing it. Again

we also have the problem that Leopold does not explain how education blinds us. What we have is

a problem of definitions. Leopold never clearly stateswhat education is.

Culture through socialization, as I discussed in my previous paper (Is Anybody Home?),

has the affect of influencing what our brain actively perceives, i.e., what we notice or are aware of,

and what we notice or are aware of differs from culture to culture. Thus, we can say that, "you

would not be you in a different culture." Education, when correctly defined, does the opposite of

4.