Thinking outside the box

It's election time on campus and yet one could easily think that more ominous circumstances have befallen us. I'm greeted by a host of well dressed security guards, soldiers and policemen at the gates of a university... a university! Not the gates of a secluded government building of power, but the gates of a type of institution on whose shoulders civilizations not only survive and endure, but thrive.

You're not just one in a million!
Courtesy of Flick-James Good

These are not wistful words; true universities really are the pillars of any successful and prosperous civilization (and I'll tell you why perhaps some other time). Yet when the defective currents of society infiltrates the student body it's time to reflect and think... it should be the other way around!

Universities don't exist to just impart knowledge. Google and Wikipedia (the world's largest encyclopedia ever assembled) have completely decentralized the dissemination of information, data and knowledge - a historical event of huge proportions. But the University has always existed (ideally) to impart to students the art of thought, analysis, art itself, logic, tolerance, curiosity, leadership and so much more. They exist to teach people how to learn and lead. And that isn't learnt by studying or reading textbooks.

Sometimes these ideals are merely a hand's breadth apart from students and yet many scarcely ever tap into this aspect of university life. You see, if you're in university you're extremely privileged. You are really being given tools that will make you wiser than the crowds. Sure, those who have no education can learn such things too but much of a good university's unrecognized work is it's efforts at making you an exemplary thinker, analyzer and eventually, mover and shaker of the world.

Sheep and fish follow each other. Their brains are considerably smaller and simpler than ours. Learn to think out of the box, be bold and hold onto good and you're very likely a great, true and influential leader in the making.

Marc Mikhael, Ph.D.
The Apprentice's Compass