Newspaper Page Text
The Purpose of Education
by M. L. King, Jr.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The following article is taken from
the Founder’s Day Issue of the Maroon
Tiger from 1947. Martin Luther King,
Jr. was a junior here at Morehouse
when he wrote this. Our own Dr. Wil
liam Pickens was also on the 1946-47
Maroon Tiger staff. Charles V. Wills
was the Editor-in-Chief.
As I engage in the so-called “bull
sessions” around and about the
school, 1 too often find that most
college men have a misconception
of the purpose of education. Most
of the “brethen” think that educa
tion should equip them with the
proper instruments of exploitation
so that they can forever trample
over the masses. Still others think
that education should furnish them
with noble ends rather than means
to an end.
It seems to me that education
has a two-fold function to perform
in the life of man and in society: the
one is utility and the other is cul
ture. Education must enable a man
to become more efficient, to
achieve with increasing facility the
ligitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one
for quick, resolute and effective
thinking. To think incisively and to
think for one’s self is very difficult.
We are prone to let our mental life
become invaded by legions of half
truths, prejudices, and propa
ganda. At this point, I often
wonder whether or not education
is fulfilling its purpose. A great
majority of the so-called educated
people do not think logically and
scientifically. Event the press, the
classroom, the platform, and the
pulpit in many instances do not
give us objective and unbiased
truths. To save man from the
morass of propaganda, in my opin
ion, is one of the chief aims of edu
cation. Education must enable one
to sift and weigh evidence, to dis
cern the true from the false, the real
from the unreal, and the facts from
the fiction.
The function of education,
therefore, is to teach one to think
intensively and to think critically.
But education which stops with
efficiency may prove the greatest
menance to society. The most dan
gerous criminal may be the man
gifted with reason, but with no
morals.
The late Eugene Talmadge; in
my opinion, possessed one of the
better minds of Georgia, or even
America. Moreover, he wore the
Phi Beta Kappa key. By all meas
uring rods, Mr. Talmadge could
think critically and intensively; yet
he contends that I am an inferior
being. Are those the types of men
we call educated?
We must remember that intelli
gence is not enough. Intelligence
plus character—that is the goal of
true education. The complete edu
cation gives one not only power of
concentration, but worthy objec
tives upon which to concentrate.
The broad education will, there
fore, transmit to one not only the
accumulated knowledge of the
race, but also the accumulated
experience of social living.
If we are not careful, our colleges
will produce a group of close-
minded, unscientific, illogical
propagandists, consumed with
immoral acts. Be careful, “bre
then!” Be careful, teachers!
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is swarmed by a crowd of youthful admirers of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church
Newark, New Jersey on March 27, 1968.
MAKOOn
Vol. 80 No. 7
Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA
February 1, 1979
50th Birthday Memorial Issue
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr
1929-1968