At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. “To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education,” he said. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living. He insists that character and moral development are necessary to give the critical intellect humane purposes. Writing in the campus newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, King argues that education has both a utilitarian and a moral function.1 Citing the example of Georgia’s former governor Eugene Talmadge, he asserts that reasoning ability is not enough. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at licensing@i-p-m.com or 404 526-8968. Are those the types of men we call educated? At BU King refined his conception of God, incorporating tenets of personalism, a theological doctrine that stressed the personal nature of God and one's relationship to God, as well as the sanctity of human personality as a reflection of God's image. It’s was a call for equality and freedom, and became one of the most iconic speeches in America’s history. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are publishing Dr. King’s 1947 article written in the Moorehouse College campus newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, titled “The Purpose of Education.” As Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute notes: “King argues that education has both a utilitarian and a moral function. In 1925, the Maroon Tiger succeeded the Athenaeum as the campus literary journal at Morehouse. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. P: (650) 723-2092  |  F: (650) 723-2093  |  kinginstitute@stanford.edu  |  Campus Map. I will attempt to answer the question, what is the purpose of education? King graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life’s blueprint? 1. Many quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for stating, “Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education”. On the one hand it should discipline the mind for sustained and persistent speculation. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. James Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath [New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1877], p. 252). Education should cause us to rise beyond the horizon of legions of half truth, prejudices and propaganda. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. Martin Luther King, Sr., with Clayton Riley, Daddy King: An Autobiography (New York: William Morrow, 1980), p. 143. Elsewhere I have recommended resources on Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals. Education without morals is like a ship without a compass, merely wandering nowhere. King, Sr., reported that Talmadge “sent us away humiliated, frustrated, insulted, and without hope of redress” (“The Autobiography of Daddy King as Told to Edward A. Jones” [n.d.], p. 40; copy in CKFC). By Martin Luther King, Sr. However, it wasn’t a man but a teenager who wrote these famous and challenging words in an essay entitled “The Purpose of Education” for the … Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa key. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. Education should enable us to “weigh and consider,” to discern the true from the false, the relevant from the irrelevant, and the real from the unreal. It’s easy to envision a seasoned civil rights leader compelling the world to critically think about the chief end of schooling. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at, American Prophet: Online Course Companion, Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929-June 1951. Please c, ontact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at, American Prophet: Online Course Companion, Freedom's Ring: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech, The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929-June 1951. Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker, and Penny A. Russell, eds. It was delivered at Washington in March for equality and freedom, in front of 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial who witnessed the historic event live. Yet this is the job of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Purpose of Education "The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Martin Luther King, Jr. published Why We Can't Wait in 1964, shortly after the momentous events in Birmingham, Alabama had helped garner national attention on … 226–237; Joseph L. Bernd, “White Supremacy and the Disfranchisement of Blacks in Georgia, 1946,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 66 (Winter 1982): 492–501; Clarence M. Wagner, Profiles of Black Georgia Baptists (Atlanta: Bennett Brothers, 1980), p. 104; and Benjamin E. Mays, Born to Rebel: An Autobiography (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), pp. 174, 260, 289–292. To think is one of the hardest things in the world, and to think objectively is still harder. King was inspired by Thoreau’s essay on Civil Disobedience, and it started the momentum that would one day change the landscape of our society. What did he use all that precious knowledge for? To accomplish what?”2. 15–16; and Edward A. Jones, A Candle in the Dark: A History of Morehouse College (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1967), pp. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summary: Martin Luther King Jr. became the predominant leader in the civil rights movement to end racial segregation and discrimination in America during the 1950s and 1960s, and was a leading spokesperson for nonviolent methods of achieving social change. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. The Purpose of Education, by Martin Luther King, Jr. As I engage in the so-called “bull sessions” around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Maroon Tiger (January-February 1947): 10. Character represents many qualities, which separates one … Here Luther speaks on the importance of Christian education. If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. In the first semester of the 1947–1948 academic year, it won a First Class Honor Rating from the Associated Collegiate Press at the University of Minnesota. Claim: Martin Luther King Jr. said that one of the main purposes of education is to teach people how to tell fact from fiction. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. 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 menace to society. In an unpublished autobiographical statement, King, Sr., remembered a meeting between Governor Eugene Talmadge and a committee of blacks concerning the imposition of the death penalty on a young black man for making improper remarks to a white woman. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. If education stops here it can be the most dangerous force in society. King’s “The Purpose of Education” was published with a companion piece, “English Majors All?” by a fellow student, William G. Pickens. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. King, Sr., later recalled that his son told him, “Talmadge has a Phi Beta Kappa key, can you believe that? The Purpose of Education. Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” —Martin Luther King Jr., speech at Morehouse College, 1948 “The main purpose of the American school is to provide for the fullest possible development of each learner for living morally, creatively, and productively in a democratic society.” We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Six months before the publication of King’s article, Georgia’s race-baiting former governor Eugene Talmadge had declared in the midst of his campaign for a new term as governor that “the only issue in this race is White Supremacy.” On 12 November, the black General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia designated his inauguration date, 9 January 1947, as a day of prayer. Be careful, “brethren!” Be careful, teachers! The Institute cannot give permission to use or reproduce any of the writings, statements, or images of Martin Luther King, Jr. MLKP, MBU, Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers, 1954-1968, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Mass. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. King, Martin Luther, Jr. (Morehouse College), Martin Luther King, Jr. - Political and Social Views. Morehouse College, 1948. It is a tragedy that the latter is often neglected in our educational system. He suggests that education should not only “teach man to think intensively” but also provide “worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.”. King used the phrase “weigh and consider” in three papers written at Crozer Theological Seminary (“Light on the Old Testament from the Ancient Near East,” 14 September–24 November 1948, p. 180 in this volume; “The Sources of Fundamentalism and Liberalism Considered Historically and Psychologically,” 13 September–23 November 1949, p. 237; and Book review of A Functional Approach to Religious Education by Ernest J. Chave, 12 September–22 November 1950, p. 355). Also question is, what is Dr King's purpose for writing this letter? Bailey Nielsen Galloway College Composition 20 January 2015 Education in Society Within the speeches The Purpose of Education by Martin Luther King Jr. and Wiley College vs. Oklahoma City College from the movie The Great Debaters, there are many different … The Letter from Birmingham Jail, also known as the Letter from Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. King, for instance, also spoke eloquently of the importance of education. The Purpose of Education By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Cypress Hall D, 466 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305-4146 Perhaps the most dangerous periods in civilization have been those periods when there was no moral foundation in society. This essay, written sometime during King’s junior year at Morehouse, may be an early draft of the article of the same name published in the Maroon Tiger. enough. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the ligitimate goals of his life. Most of the “brethren” think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. P: (650) 723-2092  |  F: (650) 723-2093  |  kinginstitute@stanford.edu  |  Campus Map. Please contact Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), the exclusive licensor of the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. at licensing@i-p-m.com or 404 526-8968. About “The Purpose of Education” Originally published in January-February 1947 by Morehouse College’s campus newspaper, The Maroon Tiger. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. But this is not the whole of education. Though he advocated public schools, Luther intended that they be Christian. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. ***** Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a leader in the Protestant Reformation, a man used by God to call the church back to His Word. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. 1 The first function of education, therefore, is to teach man to think intensively. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. On the other hand it should integrate human life around central, focusing ideals. Intelligence plus … Among the many prominent black academicians and journalists who served an apprenticeship on the Maroon Tiger staff were Lerone Bennett, Jr., editor of Ebony; Brailsford R. Brazeal, dean of Morehouse College; S. W. Garlington, city editor of New York’s Amsterdam News; Hugh Gloster, president of Morehouse College; Emory O. Jackson, editor of the Birmingham World; Robert E. Johnson, editor of Jet; King D. Reddick of the New York Age; Ira De A. Reid, chair of the Sociology Department at Atlanta University; and C. A. Scott, editor and general manager of the Atlanta Daily World. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. Education should enable us to “weigh and consider,” to discern the true from the false, the relevant from the irrelevant, and the real from the unreal.1 The first function of education, therefore, is to teach man to think intensively. . A bout employment, housing, and the military—institutions central to Americans’ social life—Martin Luther King Jr. had plenty to say. Education; What Is Your Life’s Blueprint? 221–223. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “The Purpose of Education” and Frank O’Connor’s short story, “Christmas Morning,” both discuss what is the purpose of education. Clayborne Carson, Ralph Luker, and Penny A. Russell, eds. Thanks to a reader of the blog for sharing this statement by Dr. King on a matter of concern to us all. Education should equip us with the power to think effectively and objectively. It is not enough to have the power of concentration, but we must have worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. Today, on Dr. King’s birthday, we want to honor his memory and highlight one of his reflections — “The Purpose of Education.” This powerfully worded piece, penned by Dr. King in 1947, was published in The Maroon Tiger, the campus newspaper at the Morehouse College where he completed his undergraduate studies in sociology. In the article “The Purpose of Education”, a young Martin Luther King states that “Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.” Also, he … Six months before he was assassinated, King spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.