Our English Syllabus

In "Our English Syllabus" Lewis describes the difference between education and learning and talks about how to choose what you learn. Lewis says that education is what makes you 'human' while learning is the pursuit of knowledge. "The assumption is that the master is already human, the pupil a mere candidate for humanity--an unregenerate little bundle of appetites which is to be kneaded and molded  into human shape by one who knows better." When we are educated it is by someone who has been previously educated which means we are being educated under them. This is different in learning because in learning we are learning with someone more than learning under them.

Later, Lewis talks about how to study and how to choose what to study in your learning. "The proper question for a freshman is not 'What will do me the most good?' but 'What do I most want to learn?'" Lewis does not like the idea of a wide range of topics in learning but rather a more thorough learning of a specific topic. This is difficult because later he agrees with Hegel when he says, "A perfect study of anything requires a knowledge of everything." It is impossible then to have perfect knowledge of anything so we have to choose which things are the most important to our understanding. Lewis uses the example of a tree where all of the possible learning topics are the roots. You have to keep the main roots of the subject and as many of the smaller ones that you have time for, but besides that you must cut out everything else. Although the tree may not grow to its full potential it will still live. Then Lewis says, "Things are understood by what precedes them rather than by what follows them. It may be disappointing to stop a story in the middle, but you can understand it as far as you have gone; you cannot understand it if you begin in the middle." This is true in stories and learning and I also think it is true with the Bible. Some people will just read the New Testament because they think the Old Testament doesn't apply to us anymore and so it isn't important. This isn't true because, to understand God more and understand the story, we have to know it from the start of creation.