What does EGW write about...
Ellen Gould White über: "Dangers of mechanical learning without character formation"
Answer
Education that is limited to memory training weakens the ability to think and judge independently, making learners vulnerable to deception and mere traditions. When intellectual culture is placed above moral education, students lack moral strength and personal responsibility. Such mechanical learning leads to a superficial character formation that provides no solid support for a person in the practical challenges of life.
Dangers of One-sided Intellectual Training
Education that consists of memory training and tends to discourage independent thinking has a moral impact that is undervalued. By sacrificing the student's power to think and judge for themselves, they become unable to distinguish between truth and error, and become an easy prey for deception. They are readily inclined to follow traditions and customs.
Any effort that places intellectual culture above moral training is misguided. Instruction, cultivation, shaping, and refinement of youth and children should be the primary concern of both parents and teachers. Thorough thinkers and logical minds are few, because false influences have hindered the development of the intellect.
A child can be trained so that, like an animal, it no longer has its own will. Even its individuality can be subsumed into the person supervising its education... Children raised in this way will always exhibit a lack of moral energy and personal responsibility. They have not been taught to act out of reason and principles.
The memory was pushed to the extreme, while the other mental faculties were not developed accordingly. Students spent their time stuffing the mind with knowledge that could hardly be used. The mind, burdened with indigestible material, becomes weakened; it becomes incapable of powerful, independent effort and settles for relying on the judgment and perception of others.
A mistake is made when the shaping of the heart or the solidification of principles is neglected while trying to secure intellectual culture, or when eternal interests are overlooked in the eager pursuit of temporal advantage.
We live in an age where almost everything is superficial. There is little stability and firmness of character because the training and upbringing of children from the cradle onward is superficial. Their characters are built on shifting sand. Self-denial and self-control have not been formed into their character.
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Original Sources (English)
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