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Education is one of the most potent things in our world. It is through education and scientific progress that we have created the cures to many diseases and invented advanced technology that has revolutionized the world. However, the same knowledge that has created the miraculous state of our society also has the potential to destroy it. With the knowledge we have we can develop a cure for cancer just as easily as we can annihilate the world. If education only teaches skills without responsibility, people will be just as likely to destroy the world, as they will be to save it. Nevertheless, teaching values can be a very difficulty task, as everyone has a different set of values. Education needs to teach skills as well as a fundamental compassion towards mankind. When people are only taught skills, and not values, they may be easily corrupted. Misguided scientists who do not realize the implications of their work can easily devastate the world. There is constant fear of a biological attack, and as I recently read in “Discover” magazine, a slight genetic alteration to the smallpox vaccination could make the US’s stockpile of smallpox vaccinations useless. If all the people who are taught the science necessary to alter genetic material were also taught the values that tell them not to create a super-weapon, then we would not need to fear that someone would alter the smallpox virus. However, there is no defined set of values that can be taught. Even values that seem like common sense, such as not lying or stealing can be more complex than they seem. If someone is starving, and unable to obtain food, surely, he/she can be forgiven for stealing a loaf of bread to survive. But how does one define starving? Does only eating one meal a day constitute starving, or not eating in a week? Both conditions are regrettable, but does either justify stealing food? The complexity of something as simple as stealing makes it virtually impossible to teach ethics on anything more complex. Even though theft can be forgiven under certain conditions, I believe people should never steal, as there will always be less fortunate people. However, values cannot be defined for more complex issues. For example, I am a vegetarian and do not believe in harming other living creatures. However, other people do not see anything wrong in eating meat, as it is a part of nature. Just because different people have different values, no particular person is wrong; people with differing values may both have society’s best interest in mind. Because of this, it is impossible to teach a single set of values that is accurate. Nevertheless, this does not mean that education should only teach skills. In addition to skills, education needs to teach the underlying principles that create a person’s values. One of these principles is the need for compassion towards others. Education should teach people to care for others, help the less fortunate, and to occasionally subordinate self-interest. When people learn to care for others, they will not commit vices such as theft or lying as they will realize that those actions hurt other people and cause suffering. If compassion remains an underlying motive, or at the very least something that stops people from harming others, then our society will be even better. Teaching compassion will hopefully prevent people from being detrimental to society, so that we will not have to worry about biological attacks, or other misapplications of knowledge. Even if teaching compassion does not affect every student, or avert some disaster, it will hopefully make a few people more considerate so that they realize they are unnecessarily hurting people, and stop other simple abuses of knowledge. Another important principle that needs to be taught is the consequence of one’s actions. While we are told to consider the consequences of our actions, education should reiterate this, and explain these consequences, so that people think about them even more. Many of the people involved in the recent financial scandals such as the Enron scandal, probably did not realize the consequences of their actions to both themselves and others. They probably got carried away by their positions and never thought that they could be caught. It is likely that some of them never realized that they were hurting real people. Those who were not scared of the penal consequences might not have committed their actions if they realized that people were counting on the money they stole, and that some people would suffer a lot. People often act before thinking, and do things that they would never do if they realized how foolish their actions were. If people learn to consider these basic principles as well as others then they can come up with their own values, as they will be able to analyze the effect of their actions, and do what is best for both themselves and other people. On some more controversial topics such as embryonic stem cell research, someone can be either for or against it, while still trying to be compassionate and consider the consequences. Both viewpoints will remain valid as long as the best interest of humanity is kept in mind. Education should even encourage both viewpoints, so that students see all aspects of an issue and can decide which side they prefer. If teaching values can stop even one person from being motivated by only greed, it is worth any risk that it carries.
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