Learn Wisdom. (Revisited)

Many people believe wise King Solomon to have been the earliest philosopher in time. Many of his proverbs can be traced to writings of wise men before him. For example, in Egypt, sages were taught practical wisdom to groom youths to be suitable to conduct themselves in their courts in the presence of leaders and rulers. Also to perhaps grow in time to be wise enough to become a leader and counselor to the rulers of Egypt.

There are basically two aspects of wisdom, practical and spiritual. In the USA, secular public schools do not teach a dedicated practical wisdom course.  Any teaching of spiritual wisdom is forbidden because of the interpretation in the USA Constitution to separate Church from State.

One purpose of the Constitution is to provide for the general welfare of our nation. Public schools came about under the broad interpretation of general welfare and everyone pays taxes to teach children regardless of age or ever having a child. Any wise person knows wisdom promotes general welfare as well or better than any other school course.  Why not teach a course in practical wisdom?

Rather than wisdom per se, we teach children rules regulations, laws of which our nation now has far too many for anyone to remember or sometimes to even consider before they make choices. They have so many rules and regulations throw at them, they can easily discount, forget, or ignore what has been said or taught to them.

Wisdom teaches a young person how to first discern consequences before making everyday choices in life to avoid folly that can possibly affect them the rest of their lives.

For Example

I commented on a teenager’s blog which a young, bright young girl with great writing skills gave her advice to her peers about learning to drive. I was interested in her advice because I was rear ended last week while stopped at a red light by a teenage driver who was obviously distracted by something when he ran into me. Whether it was being on the phone talking or texting or changing radio stations or daydreaming, the result was he rear ended me and will have to pay a ticket, a raise in insurance premiums, etc. etc. So I commented on her blog to include advice about distractions.

She replied that she perhaps through her fault had been in an accident and made this statement, “experience is the best teacher.” I commented in return that experience is one way to learn, however, the best way is to learn wisdom to prevent bad experiences from happening in the first place.

I later thought about my comment which leads to my next question.

Where Can or Should a Young Person Learn Wisdom?

Churches focus mainly on the wisdom of spirituality and morality. Parents teach their children wisdom. Problem being that there are both good and bad parents same as schools. Teachers quickly can assess a student’s parents by the conduct of their children.

As for schools that teach practical wisdom I googled and selected two articles. I have no personal experience with the sources. However, their outline curriculum would give you an idea of what a practical wisdom course might entail.

So how does a young person become acquainted or interested in practical wisdom? King Solomon wrote Judaeo-Christian proverbs to try to inspire youths to seek wisdom. Other wise man of different religions and cultures give basically the same advice.

King Solomon’s first Chapter in Proverbs is about Wisdom personified by a Goddess, calling out her benefits to all who will listen. However reading or listening to wise sayings and not totally understanding the meanings or interpretation may be a tedious and time consuming affair for most youths today.  Many now obsessed with a host of electronic games and gadgets to distract them for the realities of life they will have to face in time.

Some contemporary efforts have been successful to teach practical wisdom to youths by writing books like Curious George. I wrote a contemporary novel suitable for both young and older adults about the meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba to try to stir up interest in acquainting readers with the wisdom of proverbs.

One kind book critic publisher took the time to read and compliment me about my novel. However, he warned that even though he personally found the novel both entertaining and meaningful of interest to him, the subject of wisdom has very little current interest by readers and would not be a profitable venture for a publisher.

I knew that when I self-published it anyway in hope that if I interested only one person, I will have accomplished something positive in accordance to this King Solomon writing in Ecclesiastes Chapter Eleven.

Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let your hands not be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.

In other words, you may never know for certain if what you say or do will succeed to have a favorable or even unfavorable result. However, if you do nothing, there will never be for certain any “this or that” result.

Reality

The reality in life is we all will make foolish mistakes. One parental mistake is to allow our kids to waste too much of their precious time of youth being influenced by movies, TV, questionable musical lyrics, and distracted with entertaining toys and gadgets. Yes, every kid needs a break from learning and enjoyment in youth in my opinion. However, moderation is needed with the gadgets or the end result could be they will learn the hard way and regret it later when they have to face reality in adulthood.

I believe schools do teach wisdom consequences in round about ways. For example, why drugs are bad or sex has consequences of pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

However, these are warning methods rather acquiring the quality of being wise. Being wise is the power of judging rightly by following the soundest course of action based on knowledge, experience, understanding, good judgment and sagacity. This knowledge can be obtained from learning about the what wise men have observed about both the greatness and folly of humans of the past.

In my Opinion

A dedicated middle school or high school course to acquaint youth with practical wisdom and how foolish choices they make may have long term consequences in life would result in a better way to provide for the “general welfare” and health of our nation.

A better way for youths to learn about practical wisdom in life is to acquaint them with the wisdom of the ages how to avoid folly is to be taught with both erudition and love by dedicated classroom teachers, rather than bad experiences. By the way, this is no great new novel idea of mine. As I stated, this is what the Egyptians taught their sages 7000 years ago, which is how to properly and wisely conduct themselves in society.

I also believe that a youth, once introduced to thinking about living a wise life, will in time think about the spiritual aspects of both love and wisdom.

What the world needs now in addition to love is wisdom. (My Blog Motto)

Teach children in a way that fits their needs, and even when they are old, they will not leave the right path. (Proverb 22:6)

Regards and goodwill blogging. 

Source Links

That Girls Words HERE

Wise Lessons HERE

Teaching Wisdom in Our Schools HERE

As a Lily Among Thorns HERE