On wheth­er edu­ca­tion is pos­sible, opin­ions are divided. If some­thing were not there from the out­set, it would have to be cre­ated there, and if some­thing is there, it can­not be taken away. On this basis we may claim that there is no sense in train­ing, for you can­not carve an oak out of a pop­lar. Par­men­ides took this stand, pos­it­ing the abso­lute nature of exist­ence, where­as Her­ac­litus broke a lance for becom­ing, for arising, for con­stant change. On this basis some main­tain that edu­ca­tion does make sense, that res­ults can be achieved, and that even what one does not pos­sess from the out­set can be acquired. The oppos­ing view holds that there is no devel­op­ment and noth­ing can be added to what is already there, though, gran­ted, noth­ing of it is lost either. It is point­less to enter into dis­pute over this, for we know that the mul­ti­tude of views is end­less, and not one of the opin­ions foun­ded on argu­ment is con­clus­ive; what is more, a long-drawn-out dis­pute means that both sides are wrong.

And yet we may declare that the cul­tiv­a­tion of ideals has its effect on man. Prac­tising the coarse laws of the struggle for exist­ence makes one coarse, and cul­tiv­at­ing beauty makes one refined, nobler. Beauty in itself is a spir­itu­al prac­tice, which is why it is said that a false man can­not be beau­ti­ful. Besides the cul­tiv­a­tion of ideals, anoth­er excep­tion­ally potent prac­tice is asso­ci­ation. If you asso­ci­ate with drunk­ards, you your­self will take to drink, and if you asso­ci­ate with saints, there is a chance that you will become a holy man. So edu­ca­tion, upbring­ing and train­ing do have a role after all. Oth­er­wise the vari­ous opin­ion-formers, the ideo­lo­gies, the rep­res­ent­at­ives of the cur­rent paradigm would not wage so bit­ter a struggle to indoc­trin­ate people. Every sys­tem needs obed­i­ent par­ti­cipants, who are the easi­est to man­age and are will­ing to keep the sys­tem run­ning, and it is true that they give their lives and their blood for it, but they may also enjoy its bene­fits to a cer­tain degree. But what is edu­ca­tion?

Edu­ca­tion is an invest­ment in people's widest future. If we regard edu­ca­tion as gen­er­al train­ing, basic train­ing, then it is clear that in this field we only talk about ideals. This is the pre­par­a­tion for the day when ideals will become forces that shape life. The norms of right liv­ing and right con­duct must be repeated again and again, and more than that, the teach­er must exem­pli­fy them in his own life. In this way his words will take hold. It is a patient but effect­ive meth­od. Per­haps we have already out­grown the age of holy inno­cence and naiv­ety, and yet we must begin by telling of right con­duct, of noble ideals. This is the the­or­et­ic­al found­a­tion.

Edu­ca­tion must be fol­lowed by upbring­ing. This is put­ting into prac­tice the right ideals learnt in the­ory, or at least pre­par­ing to do so. Upbring­ing is the form­ing of char­ac­ter, and char­ac­ter is man's fate. For the mis­un­der­stood geni­us, it is noth­ing less than his des­tiny. The two fun­da­ment­al dir­ec­tions of upbring­ing are devel­op­ing a sense of one's rights and a sense of duty. The read­i­ness to argue and to assert one's interests must be developed just as much as obed­i­ence and respect for author­ity. One must know how to keep silent, and how to speak as well. Admis­sion to the school of Pythagoras was gran­ted to who­ever with­stood the first trial. For three days he had to wait at the entrance without food or drink, without any­one so much as deign­ing to notice him. If he stayed, he was taken in, and if not, that was one less hindrance.

Train­ing is per­haps the nar­row­est field of action. In train­ing, the can­did­ate may come to know a spe­cial­ist field, his per­son­al sphere of activ­ity. This is the field by whose cul­tiv­a­tion he can fol­low the course of his per­son­al fate, and through which he can con­trib­ute to the uni­ver­sal good. For the goal is to train com­pet­ent people attuned to the noblest ideals. Thus the threefold ori­ent­a­tion comes about: know­ing the high ideals in the­ory, put­ting them into prac­tice and liv­ing them out in the form­ing of char­ac­ter, and acquir­ing spe­cial­ist skills. These are dif­fer­ent facets of the same crys­tal, for on the plane of uni­ver­sal wis­dom everything is con­nec­ted with everything.