PERSONALITY TRAITS AND EDUCATION

How far does higher education improve our personality? That in personality traits, people with practically no education equal college graduates; that the people who have the highest scholastic intelligence are just as likely as not to be lowest; those who are lowest in intelligence tests are just as likely as not to rank highest; that although the personality of some students improves during the high school and college ages, that of others deteriorates, so that the net result is zero. In other words, there is no average improvement of personality due to education.

The more intellectual the man, the wider his range of ideas, the more danger he is in putting gods of temporary expedience before the god of everlasting values. There can be no solution of life’s deeper problems, no increased happiness for the individual, through the development of greater scientific knowledge alone. More science only adds more confusion. Unless the sciences are integrated and subordinated to the homely facts of every-day living, they will destroy rather than liberate the minds which created them. This integration must come from without the sciences themselves, it is not inherent in them and it is not a subject for scientific proof. It must come from a faith, a belief in certain values of life which is fundamental and which no logic can displace.

CHANGING THE WAY OF LIFE

For many of us, there seem to be no good reasons to change our ways of life. We are satisfied that we are living on the same lines as majority of our fellow human beings. We go through life like a boat without a sail or rudder, downstream. When great men make their appearance in our midst from time to time and, by their precept, demonstrate to us the supremacy of the spirit, we applaud them, admire them, glorify them. Mostly, because we are at least we think we are, incapable of rising to their heights.

We have a great teacher in life: Enquiry. All progress, all learning the result of enquiry. The more earnest that, the deeper the insight we gain. The more we ponder over things, the firmer become our convictions. Enquiry is necessary not only in the realm of knowledge of the physical sciences. It is an absolute must in day-do-day life if we are to gain an insight into the science of living.

We are just content to receive information and knowledge second-hand even in situations when we should exercise independent judgment and thought. Why? Because we are busy living our little lives and there is less room for enquiry and reasoning.