In the past year, I have spent considerable time contemplating the gifts and limits of education—both as a doctoral candidate pursuing the PhD and as director of the new ABHMS Center for Continuous Learning.
I found a similar recognition of the both/and of education’s power when exploring what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had to say on the topic.
An undergraduate Martin wrote about “The Purpose of Education.”[1] He thought education should produce two results: “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.”
Almost 15 years later, King warned a class of college graduates that the work of racial justice—of securing the American Dream for all people—requires more than education to transform society.[2]
“Now I agree that education plays a great role, and it must continue to play a great role in changing attitudes and to change the hearts of men [and women], in getting people ready for the new order. And,” I imagine the gifted preacher leaning forward to underscore his point, “we must also see the importance of legislation.”[3]
In his preaching ministry, King offered another both/and invitation in “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart.”[4] The tough mind is “characterized by incisive thinking, realistic appraisal, and decisive judgment….”[5] Yet, he also warned, “we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart.”[6]
Intelligence and character. Education and legislative action. Tough minds and tender hearts.
In today’s ministries of lifelong learning, I can frame King’s both/and approach as a balance between critical reflection and intentional action. I might preach about it as combining prayer with praxis. I celebrate it as a response to Micah 6:8, which calls me to “do justice” and “love mercy.”
>>> Discover more opportunities for lifelong learning that cultivates intelligence and character at the Center for Continuous Learning (ccl.ministrelife.org).
>>> Read the full article from which this is adapted next week in The Christian Citizen.
[2] Martin Luther King Jr., “The American Dream,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. James M. Washington, ed. (New York: HarperOne, 1986), 208-16. A commencement address delivered in June 1961 to the graduating class of Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Philadelphia, PA. The speech was later published in The Negro History Bulletin 31 (May 1968): 10-15, only days after King’s assassination.
[4] Martin Luther King Jr., “The Strength to Love,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. James M. Washington, ed. (New York: HarperOne, 1986), 491-517. King’s book The Strength to Love (New York: Harper & Row, 1963) was a compilation of sermons preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The first chapter in that collection is titled “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart.”
Rachael B Lawrence and 3 others
In the past year, I have spent considerable time contemplating the gifts and limits of education—both as a doctoral candidate pursuing the PhD and as director of the new ABHMS Center for Continuous Learning.
I found a similar recognition of the both/and of education’s power when exploring what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had to say on the topic.
An undergraduate Martin wrote about “The Purpose of Education.”[1] He thought education should produce two results: “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.”
Almost 15 years later, King warned a class of college graduates that the work of racial justice—of securing the American Dream for all people—requires more than education to transform society.[2]
“Now I agree that education plays a great role, and it must continue to play a great role in changing attitudes and to change the hearts of men [and women], in getting people ready for the new order. And,” I imagine the gifted preacher leaning forward to underscore his point, “we must also see the importance of legislation.”[3]
In his preaching ministry, King offered another both/and invitation in “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart.”[4] The tough mind is “characterized by incisive thinking, realistic appraisal, and decisive judgment….”[5] Yet, he also warned, “we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart.”[6]
Intelligence and character. Education and legislative action. Tough minds and tender hearts.
In today’s ministries of lifelong learning, I can frame King’s both/and approach as a balance between critical reflection and intentional action. I might preach about it as combining prayer with praxis. I celebrate it as a response to Micah 6:8, which calls me to “do justice” and “love mercy.”
>>> Discover more opportunities for lifelong learning that cultivates intelligence and character at the Center for Continuous Learning (ccl.ministrelife.org).
>>> Read the full article from which this is adapted next week in The Christian Citizen.
[1] Martin Luther King Jr., “The Purpose of Education,” in Maroon Tiger (Jan-Feb 1947): 10. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education. Accessed 1/10/22.
[2] Martin Luther King Jr., “The American Dream,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. James M. Washington, ed. (New York: HarperOne, 1986), 208-16. A commencement address delivered in June 1961 to the graduating class of Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Philadelphia, PA. The speech was later published in The Negro History Bulletin 31 (May 1968): 10-15, only days after King’s assassination.
[3] Ibid., 213.
[4] Martin Luther King Jr., “The Strength to Love,” in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. James M. Washington, ed. (New York: HarperOne, 1986), 491-517. King’s book The Strength to Love (New York: Harper & Row, 1963) was a compilation of sermons preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The first chapter in that collection is titled “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart.”
[5] Ibid., 492.
[6] Ibid., 494.