Modern education is imploding, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT. Capable of generating computer code and business plans to jokes, fiction, and interpretations of images, ChatGPT made a splashy debut last year.
Sam Altman, Open AI’s CEO, said, “It is going to eliminate a lot of current jobs” and “Education is going to have to change.”
ChatGPT prompted articles like, “The College Essay is Dead.” It sparked worries for an educational establishment battling declines in academic achievement, costs associated with higher education, and the drop in college-age demographics.
Modern academia advocates education purely for labor, ignoring purposes beyond wage-earning. Few argue that poverty is desirable. Yet everyone knows purchasing power alone does not fully enrich life. Flourishing comes through lives well lived — through fruitful, fulfilling activities and everyday moments enhanced by increased understanding and creativity.
Higher Aims of Classical Education
Classical education pursues higher aims, opposing the modern view. When greater goals are pursued, subordinate goals are also attained.
An obvious example is literacy. When education provides comprehension of challenging material, the capacity to understand instruction manuals follows. But training students to read instruction manuals does not enable them to comprehend more beautiful, demanding, and beneficial writing.
Classical education achieves higher ends that also yield practical outcomes. We should not be afraid to pursue loftier goals because we fear lesser ones will not be achieved.
Modern paradigms pursue utilitarian ends while rejecting higher purposes. As declining academic achievement demonstrates, this has ironically even undermined pragmatic
