They were nothing if they weren't well-educated and sophisticated enough to bring down corporations like Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldCom. However, one can't help but wonder whether there was something fundamentally missing from the education they received. Even today's terrorist is far removed from the cliché of an ignorant peasant who joins an organisation because he or she has nothing else to do and does not take any responsibility for his or her actions. Terrorists who are operating in our shadows are, on the other hand, well-educated and well-educated people from all over the world. As soon as something goes awry, they rely only on their brains to figure out a way to fix it. It's becoming increasingly clear that their schooling was fundamentally flawed.
How do I know what it is? In my opinion, the problem is that most of the time, we teach students to be smart and knowledgeable, but not how to put those skills to good use. Instead of focusing solely on memorization of facts and a cursory degree of analysis, schools should be educating students for wisdom.
If you want to learn wisdom, you need to understand that it isn't just about what you know but how you apply what you know. They are preparing students for the "fourth R," which the Bush administration recently referred to as "responsibility." There are four common misconceptions that smart but dumb and irresponsible people, including some who have or have run significant corporations in our country, demonstrate.
Egocentrism
When people think the world revolves around them, they fall prey to the egocentric fallacy. As the egomaniacs' requirements alter, other individuals are seen as merely tools to be utilised and then discarded. So why do intelligent individuals have such narrow perspectives? People who have traditionally been regarded as intelligent tend to become so focused on themselves that they lose sight of the wants and needs of those around them.
Omniscience
A person must have the ability to discern what he or she knows and doesn't know at any given moment, as well as what can and cannot be known. Because of this, the second fallacy is all too common, even among the brightest among us.
The illusion of omniscience arises when people begin to believe that they are not only experts in the fields in which they have studied, but also that they are well-versed in virtually every subject under the sun. As a result, people are vulnerable to making disastrous decisions on the basis of insufficient information that they are unaware of.
Omnipotence
The erroneous belief that omniscience equates to omnipotence is the root of the omnipotence fallacy. People in positions of authority may begin to believe that they are invincible. Furthermore, they disregard the age-old adage that power corrupts, but only absolute power corrupts completely. Due to the fourth fallacy, people do not consider the possible implications of their acts.
Invulnerability
The myth of invulnerability is based on the erroneous belief that one can do anything one wants if one is all-knowing and all-powerful. And they can get away with anything because they are all-knowing. The likelihood is that they'll be unnoticed. In the event that they are found, however, they believe they will be able to avoid punishment since they are smarter than those who have caught up to them.
Is it possible for clever people to avoid making the same kinds of mistakes that ignorant people do?
Wisdom, according to me, is the ability to use one's intellect and experience to benefit the greater good. A delicate balancing act is required to reach this goal.
internal (to oneself),
relating to one's fellow human beings
Over the medium and long run, extrapersonal (i.e., non-personal, such as institutional) interests
This means that sensible people are concerned not only for themselves, but also for everyone else to whom they owe any sort of duty.
The implication of this viewpoint is that intelligence alone is insufficient. It's critical to have a level of wisdom as well.
Schools should seriously explore including wisdom-related abilities into their curriculum for a number of reasons.
Knowledge alone is not enough for wisdom, and it surely does not ensure happiness, contentment, or a desire to behave in a way that goes beyond one's own benefit. Wisdom appears to be a more effective means of achieving these objectives.
Wisdom also allows us to incorporate thoughtful and deliberative ideals into our crucial decisions. If you want to be wise, you cannot be impetuous, mindless, or immoral.
Third, wisdom is a path to a better, more peaceful world.
Hitler, Stalin, and others may have had some information. For their own self-interest, they may have been excellent critical thinkers. They were foolish.
Finally, students, who will go on to be parents and leaders, are always a part of a broader society. This is why it's important that they learn the art of judging righteously on behalf of their community.
Instability does not exist in a vacuum if the future is marred by war and upheaval. We are the source and repository of it all. It's for all of these reasons that students need to think critically (and even creatively) about the material they're learning as well as think carefully about their studies in general.
Any subject matter can be used to teach wisdom.
As a result, students develop the ability to think critically and to see things from a variety of perspectives, both past and present. For example, a "settler" may be referred to as a "invader" by another group. One group may refer to "Manifest Destiny" as "land theft," while another group may refer to it as "land grab." Peace or at least avoidance of war is largely dependent on students' ability to grasp how other nations and cultures see issues and their solutions differently from our own. However, the ultimate objective should not be acceptance of these other viewpoints or even a compromise, but rather an understanding that solving difficult life situations demands a mutual desire for understanding and the pursuit of solutions that everyone involved can embrace. The results of our own studies show that pupils who are taught to think wisely outperform those in a control group who learn history in a more traditional manner.
The road to wisdom teaching is a bumpy one:
To begin with, it's tough to modify established educational frameworks. Schools don't teach wisdom. In most cases, it isn't even talked about.
As a second point, many people will not see the utility in teaching anything that does not have as its primary aim the increasing of standard exam scores. No matter how you slice it, teaching to the exam is not the fundamental aim of education.
Because knowledge takes time to cultivate, it is not as easily measured as other types of achievement, such as "Which city is the capital of France?"
For those who have earned power and influence in society by a single means—money, high test scores, parental influence, or whatever—are unlikely to want that power or a new criterion developed on which they do not rate as highly. As a result, there is no shortcut to wisdom or wisdom education. There was never, and probably never will be, another time.
Our world may be one that is constantly striving to improve itself and the lives of everyone in it, thanks to wisdom. When it comes to the future of our country, we have a choice. Is there anything in particular that we hope to accomplish through our education? Is it simply a matter of education? No, I don't think that's it. Perhaps it's also a form of wisdom? If we want our pupils to learn wisdom, we need to put them on a very different path. It's important to value not only how they maximise their own achievements, but also how they enhance the achievements of others as well, by using their exceptional qualities.
We must, in a nutshell, regard wisdom as a valuable commodity. Our actions are just as essential as our thoughts when it comes to becoming wise. The influence of a wise India will be far greater than that of a well-informed one.
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