“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
– Aristotle
And, education need not come from the classroom.
The key to broadening our outlook is to look beyond its current limits. It worked for Columbus, and it works for us today.
The four-minute-mile, a cure for polio, a man on the moon. Were it not for critical thinking –entertaining a thought without accepting it — we’d still be slow, sick and earth-bound.
Someone, in each case and the thousands of others like them, had to entertain the thought that “it can’t be done,” as a means of determining how to do it.
Roger Bannister, Jonas Salk and JFK don’t have a corner on the market of original thought, but they are great examples of the validity of Aristotle’s position.
We learn from the status quo. We learn from what comes before now. What we do next, however, will be based on our unwillingness to accept conventional wisdom — to challenge the status quo or the “reality as we know it,” to create a difference making next level for “the bar.”
That’s the kind of education that makes a difference.
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