To Be An Educated Man You Need Five Traits

A question often asked isWhat are the marks of an educated manIt is that one may

gain no inconsiderable body learning in some special field of knowledge without at the same time acquiring those habits and traits which are the marks of an educated gentlemA reasonable amount of learning must of course accompany an educationbutafter allthat amount need not be so very great in any one field An education will make its mark and find its evidences in certain traitscharacteristicsand capacities which have to be acquired by patient endeavor by following g ood exam- pleand by receiving wise discipline and sound instruction These traits or characteristics may be variously described and classifiedbut among them are five that should always stand out clearly enoug h to be seen by all men The first of these is correctness and precision in the use of the mother tong ueThe quite shocking slovenliness and vulgarity of much of the spoke n Englishas well as a little of the written English which one hears and seesproves beyond per adventure that years of attendance upon schools and colleges that are thought to be respectable have produced no impressionWhen one hears English well spokenw ith pure dictioncorrect pronunciationand an almost unconscious choice of the right wordhe recognizes it at once How much easier he finds it to imitate English of the other sort A second and indispensable trait of the educated man is refined and gentle mannerswhich are them selves the expression of fixed habits of thought and actionManners make the man wrote William of Wykeham over his gates at Winchester and at OxfordHe pointed to a great truthWhen manners are superficialartifi-cial and forcedno matter what their form they are bad man-nersWhenhoweverthey are the natural expression of fixed habits of thoug ht and actionand when they reveala refined and cultivated naturethey are g ood mannersThere are certain thing s that gentlemen do not doand they do not do them simply because they are bad manners The gentlem an instinctively knows the difference between those things which he may and should do and those thing s which he may not and should notdo A third trait of the educated man is the power and habit of reflectionHuman beings for the most part live wholly on the surface or far beyond the present moment and that part of the fu- ture which is quickly to follow itThey do not read those works of prose and poetry which have become classic because they reveal the powerful habit of reflection and induce that power and habit in othersWhen one reflects long enoug h to ask the question howhe is on the way to knowing som ething about scienceWhen one reflects long enough to ask the question whyhe mayif he persists even become a philosopher A fourth trait of the educated man is the power of g rowthHe continues to grow and develop from birth to his dying dayHis interests expandhis contacts multiplyhis knowledg e increasesand his reflection becomes deeper and widerIt would appear to be true that not many human beings even those who have had a college education continue to g row after they are twenty-four or twenty-five years of ageBy that time it is usual to settle down to life on a level of more or less contented intellectual interest and activityThe whole present-day movem ent for adult education is a system atic and definite attempt to keep human beings growing long after they have left schooland college and thereforeto help educate them A fifth trait of the educated man is his possession of efficiencyor the power to doThe mere visionary dreamerhowever charming or however wiselacks something which an education re- quiresThe power to do may be exercised in any one of a thousand waysbut when it clearly shows itselfthat is evidence that the period of discipline of studyand of companionship with parents and teachers has not been in vain Given these five characteristicsone has the outline of an educated man That outline may be filled in by scholarshipby literary power by mechanical skillsby professional zeal and capacity by busine ss competence or by social and political leadershipSo long as the frame work or outline is there the content may be pretty much what you willassumingof course that the fundamental elements of the great tradition which is civilization and its outstanding records and achievements in hum- an personalityin lettersin scie ncein the fine artsand in human institutionsare all presentAs the professional manufacturer of complete sets of mining machinery, such as cone crusher, Mobile impact crusher,Primary jaw crusher,Mineral sand washer, Henan Hongxing is always doing the best in products and service.

by: chris lee

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