Education is not something that ever stops and if we’re not careful miseducation is something that never stops either. We are constantly being bombarded by new information and new ways of viewing things. Some of this good, as in accurate, and some of these bad, as in false. If we never develop critical thinking skills and learn to look at the world and the information we get with a shrewd eye we can be led into all sorts of falsity.
Education is critical. The dictionary defines education as “the process of giving or receiving systematic instruction” a neutral term. For the state and state schools education is indoctrination into what is best for the state and not necessarily for the individual. Why would an organization give something for free that wasn’t going to work in its best interest? However for me and my definition of education it’d be the process of enlightening, the process of ennoblement.
Which is a far cry from what we usually think of when we think of education. I want you to rethink education, its power, and what it can accomplish for you. And don’t think that school and schooling is something that is only for children under the age of 18 or in college. We are always in the process of being schooled, each and ever day. It pays to take command of this and get the most from it.
What we’re going to do here is go through the basis of an education to create a man in full, a renaissance man, a warrior poet. How to turn a boy, or a man, into a warrior poet. What is required, what needs to be done? What needs to be learned? Understood? Accomplished? Acquired? And so on and so forth. One day it’d be great if warrior poet schools started popping up all over the world but until now we have to stick with a conceptual curriculum and do our best to learn from that.
The Problems With Most Curriculums & Solving Them
Most schools fail to address the mind, body, and spirit, most are simply propaganda factories to make more worker bees, nothing more and nothing less. Even the best schools only address parts of the mind. Whereas a warrior poet school would address the mind, body, and spirit and develop each aspect to its upmost. Created well rounded men, men in full, renaissance men, warrior poets. This will be more encompassing than even the most rigorous current curriculums.
So we’d have to address the mind, the body, and the spirit. How do we go about doing that? Let’s start with the mind because that’s the first place most people go when thinking about education. What has to be learned? Well the first thing that has to be learned is how to learn and how to think. While most education teaches you to recite mindless facts and parrot whatever the teacher tells you, true education requires critical thinking and learning how to learn and how to think.
Next we have physical development. Most schools have sports teams but these vary in their effectiveness at developing students. Some, like wrestling, work great while others don’t do much for development at all. And not all children participate in them. So we’d require participation in physical skill development that also works on character and mental development.
Then we have the development of the spirit, this is a multifaceted topic. I think a good art program, rarely found in schools, can help ennoble and develop the spirit as well as time spent in nature. Something that some clubs do but very few and they’re shrinking. We also have the develop of character and willpower. Both are missing in modern education yet critical to success in life and to full development as a man.
And finally we have a practical aspect. It’s a shame that more schools don’t offer more trade programs where children can learn valuable skills that they’ll actual use when out in the real world. Because this varies so much a broad base followed by a specialized program would be best. With different schools specializing in different things.
No one school can cover every trade after all but just the fact that its an option will help many and all schools can provide some base skills that’ll provide useful later in life, as well as help one find employment. Something modern school does nothing to help. So now that we have the challenges laid out, what is the solution?
The Curriculum For The Warrior Poet
Let me state that what I lay out here is by no means perfect nor complete, like everything I say it’s meant to be a jumping off a point. It’s made to get you thinking and give you a head start in the right direction, nothing less and nothing more. So let’s dive into solving these problems stated above. The mind, the body, the spirit, and more. We’ll start with developing the mind.
The modern way of schooling neglects the mind, it teaches it regurgitate useless facts and whatever the teacher says. Minor debate is allowed around a few choice safe subjects but true debate rare, true thinking rare. School should not be focused on memorizing random facts about a certain list of subjects but rather give students the tools that they need to learn and to think of their own. And the best way to do this is through what is called classical education.
Classical education consists of three parts, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. However those parts don’t necessarily mean what you think when you first read them. The grammar stage is focused on learning facts and bits of information, sort of how modern education is based…sort of. However this is simply the first stage. The second is logic and that focuses on thinking, about comparing and contrasting the information and bits of date they have gathered relate to one another. It’s about relationships and thinking through things, asking why, critical thinking.
Then there’s the rhetoric stage. The rhetoric stage focuses on debating and explaining your process for coming to conclusions, while at the same time coming to your own conclusions. It’s about using the date you gathered, applying critical thinking skills to it, and then arguing for your conclusion. This can be through debate, public speaking, persuasive essays, or other mediums. And these three stages apply to all subjects such as math, history, reading, writing, and science.
We could speak all day about classical education but we’ll move on for the sake of brevity. Next we will turn to physical development while also paying mind to social, spirit, and mental development. The fact of the matter is most sports aren’t that great at hitting all of these things, they may require skill and some physical development but they fail to produce change across the board. In a warrior poet school it makes sense to forge warriors and the best way to do this is through full contact martials arts, MMA would be my choice.
A sport like MMA does for more than just develop an athlete physically. An athlete must learn to work with others but at the same time stand on their own. They will be humbled and given confidence at the same time. They will learn to develop willpower and have respect for their opponents. Unlike say sprinting or being a lineman in American football where it’s all about having certain physical abilities, MMA and martial arts in general require mental components as well.
You must out think and out strategize your opponent. Brute force will quickly be put down whereas other sports reward simply being born faster, stronger, or bigger. With MMA you soon find that those will only take you so far and while wonderful advantages you still need to develop other skills, like thinking. There is as much a mental component during the actual doing of the sport as there is physical. A mix between chess and athletics in many ways.
And then getting punched in the face teaches people more about life than many hours spent in a classroom. I wouldn’t trust someone who’s never been punched in the face. That may sound ridiculous and it’s a bit hyperbolic but there’s much truth to it as well. Students will develop a wide range of skills while also developing their mental abilities and character.
And then we come to spiritual development. This is something that would vary widely between each warrior poet school depending on the culture that they develop in. I’m a big fan of having Sunday services where students are taught morals as well as the myths and legends of their culture. They are taught why things like strength, wisdom, and honor are good and why things like weakness, foolishness, and dishonor base. They are taught the primal/cosmic order and the importance of it. Discipline would also be a big focus for the school. Not just in behavior but in life.
Real world morals. Students should also have time to spend in nature, time spent meditating, and then have a rigorous and true art program attached to the classical education curriculum. Students should be taught about the importance of art as well as its relationship to truth. After all we’re creating warrior poets, so poetry should be part of that. They should learn the basics of story and its utility. They should learn painting, sketching, acting, comedy, poetry, singing, dance, and all the basics of the art expressions. Then be able to choose an area of art they want to specialize in and develop to a high ability.
Then we come to craft or trades. While it’d be impossible to have a general school that focuses on plumbing, carpentry, and the like to have a basic understanding of things is possible. First students should be taught the mindset of the successful. They should have negative thinking habits and limiting thoughts eliminated or at least fought against. Students should be given tools to take control of their minds and get them working for them.
Then they should learn what I call the “money” skills, though their utility goes far beyond money. Classes on sales/persuasion/people/soft skills, marketing, and copywriting. Learning the basics of each. They should be able to sell a car, write a sales letter, ask for a raise, and get a small business to the black before the end of their time at the school.
Then after basic success mindset and the money skills have been covered will they focus on their given trade. The best way to do this I think is give them a wide selection and allow them to get a taste of the various trades and where their skills most likely lie. And by trades I’m also including salesmanship which is the most profitable trade that there is. So we’ve address the practical component of learning a trade and money making skills as well. Giving them a foundation that goes far beyond anything else out there.
The School For Warrior Poets
We’ve covered a lot of ground here. And this is only the basics, a general sketch of things if you will. Don’t think that this is only for children either. The vast majority of adults are bereft of a true education, of a warrior poet’s education. Look at the curriculum above and see where your own gaps are. Almost no one has been taught how to think critically so that’s the best place to start. But there are plenty of other options as well, you know you best and you’ll know what area you should focus on.
Think about these things and see how you can apply them to your own life, and who knows maybe one day you’ll open a warrior poet school and radically change you community because of it. Or simply adopt the tenets here and radically change your own life.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it.
-Charles Sledge
