Chambumo Gyeong - 429. The purpose of education
The reason True Parents established so many educational institutions, and continue to concentrate on this area, is that there is nothing more important than educating leaders who can care for their nations and the world. It is the way to create a world rooted in the culture of heart, God's ideal of creation. True Parents established the motto, "Love Heaven, Love People, Love Your Country" as the common founding philosophy for all of their educational institutions. They did not hold anything back, and educational professionals recognize their efforts to elevate human character. 8 The question is, how can we save the world? We know clearly that education is important, and that a thorough edu cation is necessary. Our challenge is to create an educational system rooted in the Principle that can perfectly unite husbands and wives in blessed families, unite parents with their children, and then unite and connect seven generations of relatives with those children.
Such an educational system has two primary aspects: internal education and external education. Internal education begins in the family, starting with character education and going through values education. Families providing internal education need to be complemented by schools providing external, family-friendly education, which we must create. This is the reason I founded Sun Moon University and support the University of Bridgeport. We should create an educational system that supports both internal and external education, even if all the other schools in the world try to oppose us.
It is not enough to have just one university. Based on a unified standard for education, our vision of the future should be more magnificent than that of any one university. Through this standard we seek day and night to guard against the problems that impoverish society. Our challenge is how to create an environment that does not arouse criticism but instead engenders support. (312-127, 1999/10/07) 9 The time has come when young people should be able to speak more than three languages. Therefore, we are busy. Parents, offer your sons and daughters the opportunity to participate in the areas you could not accomplish in during your lifetime. Standing in the position of True Parents who bear responsibility for the whole, I address all people from this perspective. This is why we must create global universities. We have plans to build a supra-religious theological seminary in Cheongpyeong. We will build a global cultural center in conjunction with an international folk village, so that people visiting from around the world will be able to feel the atmosphere of their hometown, as if they were in their homeland. When they come to this headquarters, they can receive education and training from the palace of the heavenly nation. Then they must return to the world. (319-034, 2000/03/16) 10 If parents show a patriotic heart when they educate their children, and say, "I love you and I work hard for you. The reason I am sweating and taking great pains for you is not because I am thinking about myself, but in order to love our nation more than myself." Children who are educated with such love will endeavor to become the patriots their parents tried to become. Each time they reflect on their parents' love, they will think about the 30 million people in their nation and will study with an attitude that they are doing so for the sake of the people. While doing so, when their people are suffering in misery, they will feel it far more than their parents did.
Nonetheless, a person does not become a patriot just by saying that he or she stands in that position. They must make a foundation and, in doing so, become a key figure that people of all ages can admire. If you do not undertake this challenge, all your efforts will eventually pass away and be forgotten.
For example, consider a teacher at a school who makes great effort to convey a righteous teaching to his or her students, and does this while being anxious about the destiny of the Republic of Korea. That teacher would seize the hands of the students and, while weeping profusely, give this advice, "Do not do this for my sake, but do it for the nation. Rather than doing well for my sake, do well for the sake of the nation!" Students who hear such an exhortation will later realize their teacher's unfulfilled desire. If a teacher gives his or her life in this way, in devotion to the students, and if parents devote themselves to their children, teaching them to value the nation and the world more than themselves, then the students of this teacher, the sons and daughters of these parents, will surely become the pillars of the nation. (025-098, 1969/09/30) 11 For what purpose did God set up the educational institution called the church? The responsibility of the church is to teach and train people of all races. It is a training camp, a spiritual training camp protecting the families and citizens of the future. The church must accurately teach the path that the family, the tribe and the nation will follow. By focusing on the church, God endeavors to create the family, tribe and people of the future. (106-035, 1979/11/11) 12 Education should not be only for the benefit of ones own nation. Education should transcend national borders as it embraces and leads all people. You should think, "The world is one, and we study for the sake of the world." In any case, the world must become one. After all is said and done, it will become one.
Looking from that point of view, from the entire spectrum of education, what is needed is religious education, because it is able to transcend national borders. Next, philosophical education is also needed, because it too can transcend national borders. In other words, we must realize a form of global education that combines philosophical and religious content. In the future, any nation that does not support an educational philosophy that serves to benefit the world cannot stand before the world and humankind. (207-065, 1990/11/01) |