Discourtesy a sure sign of poor education
I was disappointed recently by criticism of Lin Jianhua, the president of Peking University, for his mispronunciation of a single word during a speech commemorating the school’s 120th anniversary. The comments were out of line with China’s legendary reputation for courtesy.
In every culture, it seems, you’ll always find critics like these — ever ready to throw rocks at others. They think themselves smart, but ironically miss the joke as they shatter their own glass houses.
Lin mispronounced the word honghu, a reference to birds that fly high — a lovely metaphor chosen to encourage students to succeed. But some people couldn’t let it go. Collectively, they were saying, “See how smart we are! We certainly know how to pronounce honghu!”
Like a gentleman, Lin forthrightly apologized for his slip. Unlike his critics, however, he couldn’t hide behind a fake name on the internet. “I was not familiar with the pronunciation and learned it this time,” he said. “The cost is high indeed.”
In the lowest of blows, some even questioned whether Lin was fit to be a university president, which raises an important question: What, exactly, does it mean to be an educated person? It certainly cannot mean never flubbing a word in a public speech. Even the most brilliant orators have done that.
I found my answer to the question some years ago as I prepared a newspaper report about the nature of education. A range of people were interviewed — teachers, janitors, laborers, prisoners, business leaders, public officials. Their universal view, expressed in various ways, was that education is not a static posture but a process, the ability to learn and grow, to solve problems, to adapt and synthesize. It’s not something you get, and then you’re done. Rather, it’s a lifelong pursuit.
In a speech to my college class in 1977, Eliot Butler, then-dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at Brigham Young University, offered this definition: “An educated person is one who by his or her own initiative and discipline is consciously, vigorously and continuingly learning.”
The inverse is also true. Noted historian Will Durrant, an unquestionably educated man, said at age 80: “Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
I wouldn’t expect those narrow-minded netizens who criticized Lin over a word to grasp this concept. So I suggest they simply ponder the title of Butler’s speech and apply it to themselves: “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects”.
Butler wrote, moreover: “It is painfully obvious that one can obtain a degree without becoming an educated person.” Ouch. Full stop.
People’s gifts vary. I’m sure that Lin — an accomplished chemist — would demolish his critics in a contest about chemical compounds. Can they correctly pronounce dodecahedrane or cyclooc-taetraenide? I’d bet a week’s wages most could not.
But what most everyone knows is that educated people are interesting to be around. Their lives are richer and more joyful. Aristotle, when asked by how much educated people are different from the uneducated, replied, “As much as the living from the dead.” And that’s an invitation to all of us: Join the living.
And drop the discourtesy. Show a little humility, kindness and respect.
In the face of what seemed like an unwarranted attack, Lin had the grace to note: “Your president is not a flawless man. … I make mistakes.”
Thank goodness, Lin is human. He knows he’s fallible. And that’s one mark of a truly educated person.