How to Connect Education and Emotions [with help from C.S. Lewis]

I recently started reading The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. I had a feeling I would enjoy the book, and so far that’s true! I staunchly believed as a young person that I could not understand philosophy. These days I enjoy philosophy more and more, as you can probably tell from my blog posts–and I find that I can understand most of it! I attribute a lot of my joy in understanding philosophy to R.C. Sproul. He made philosophy accessible and relatable to those who felt intimidated by it. Brian and I watched some of his series “The Consequences of Ideas” when Ligonier ministries offered their material for free over the summer. I can read C.S. Lewis with more understanding now because of the information I learned from R.C. Sproul. What a blessing he was to the world.

All of the following quotes come from The Abolition of Man. The Abolition of Man contains three lectures given by C.S. Lewis. The following quotes also all come from the first lecture, “Men Without Chests.”

C.S. Lewis on Education

“For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments” (pg. 13-14).

“St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris…in which every object is accorded that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it. Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought” (pg. 16).

My favorite of the quotes above is Aristotle on education: “to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.” I think the simplest definitions of things are usually the best. What determines what a student ought to like and dislike? C.S. Lewis goes on to explain that different world religions throughout time have provided different answers to that question, but they always provided some standard by which to define truth. I think our current culture is unique in this way. Our education system proposes that there is no truth by which to educate students–everything is relative–and so our entire education system is falling apart because we have no standards that define what is good or beautiful. C.S. Lewis feared the same for his generation. He saw the seeds that produced the education system we have now.

Classical Conversations’ purpose of education is “to know God and make Him known.” I think this fits right in with Aristotles’ definition of education from a Christian worldview. God determines what is true, good, and beautiful. He is truth and beauty and goodness. Teaching students to know and love God is the best way to teach them what they ought to like and dislike. We ought to like the good and lovely things of this world: sunrises that light up the morning sky with bright oranges, soft pinks, and mellow purples, the contagious laugh of a child discovering a joke for the first time, the intricate and startling systems we see all around us in nature that point us to our creative and loving Creator, and connecting with other people in friendship and affection. And we ought to love Jesus more than all of this because he upholds the world in his power and glory. We ought to dislike the ugly and evil things of this world: envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. [1]

I recognize that not all of this definition of education is workable in a public school setting, but God does write his law on our hearts. He gives us consciences that we can either choose to listen to or leave behind in the dust. [2] We are born knowing the difference between good and evil–choosing the evil over the good in our sinful state. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [3] Those who lead in the public education system may not all love the Lord, but they do still have an idea of what is good and what is evil and can encourage students to become responsible community members. Most people would agree that honesty, justice, integrity, and kindness are very good things.

I like using Charlotte Mason’s methods at home because she believed in “irrigating deserts.” She gave her students good and wholesome food for thought through living ideas and stories filled with instruction and beauty. The characters in the books she recommends have real emotions. We learn from their good choices and their mistakes. They become real to us and they teach us something through their lives. The Bible is the best living book–not only a collection of true stories, but a full history of God’s redemption plan for his people through Jesus.

C.S. Lewis on Emotions

“The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it”
(pg. 19).

“Emotional states can be in harmony with reason (when we feel liking for what ought to be approved) or out of harmony with reason (when we perceive that liking is due but cannot feel it). No emotion is in itself a judgment; in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical” (pg.19)

“Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism” (pg. 24).

“It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath them that makes them seem so” (pg. 25).

“It may even be said that it is by this middle element [the chest] that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal” (pg.25).

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and demand of them virtue and enterprise” (pg. 26).

I’d like to begin by pointing out that C.S. Lewis says emotions are ‘alogical,’ not ‘illogical.’ (Interesting fact: the word ‘alogical’ is not a word according to WordPress.) I think what he means is that emotions exist outside of logic–they are not reasonable or unreasonable in and of themselves. They simply exists as what they are. Sadness is sadness and joy is joy. Sometimes our emotions line up with what we see in the way they ought to, but sometimes our emotions betray us. For example, someone coming to faith in Christ ought to make us feel thankful and joyful. We must question our emotions if we feel sad or even resentful about such a wonderful event. In that case, our emotions would point us to sin in our lives.

I do think we have to be careful how we question our emotions. It’s detrimental to our emotional health to say something like, “I shouldn’t feel sad. Nobody else feels sad about this. It’s bad that I feel sad. I’ll try to feel happy.” We can approach our emotions in a more constructive way by saying something like, “I feel sad about this, but others feel happy. Why do I feel sad? Is my sadness related to something else?” Then, we can share our emotions with Jesus, read about those emotions in His Word, and talk about them with a trusted friend. The first approach induces guilt and shame; the second approach validates how we feel and helps us find rest in Christ.

What does any of that have to do with education? you might wonder. C.S. Lewis explains that the intellectual crowd of his day may have appeared smart and snappy, but they only appeared so because they had no emotional sensibility whatsoever. Their heads only looked so big because they had no chests. I pondered for a long time about what C.S. Lewis means by the word “chests.” The conclusion I came to is that a “chest” is a sort of conduit through which intellect and emotions can pass. A man (or woman) with a “chest” knows how to balance intellect and emotions: not placing one over the other or preferring one and ignoring the other, but understanding each one and putting each one in its proper place. Emotions support intellect, and intellect supports emotions. They both work together to help a person grow.

In the case of the intellectuals of C.S. Lewis’s day, they stunted their own growth by completely ignoring their emotions. They believed they could produce virtuous and enterprising students by focusing on their intellect alone, but intellect by itself does not produce virtue or enterprise. Students need to feel their passion for and enjoyment of a subject before they can delve deep enough to produce fresh thoughts and ideas. They need to feel angry over injustice and grateful for kindness and mercy. They must never ignore the joy that wells up in their souls over families reuniting after years of being apart or the “good guys” winning a great war, even if these events simply take place in a story. Events in stories or real life become just that–events–without the emotional ties that accompany them. Emotions help us link events together like beads on a string. Intellect shows us the pattern the beads follow. Without emotions the beads fall off one by one and clatter to the floor in disarray. Without intellect the beads themselves become meaningless. I think in some ways intellect shows us the ‘how’ of things, but emotions explain the ‘why.’

How Shall We Then Educate?

I’m so grateful for men like C.S. Lewis who take into account all aspects of our human condition–emotions and intellect included–and teach us to use them to encourage each other in growth in knowledge and sanctification. I hope that education, even in private school and homeschool settings, will increasingly become more focused on teaching what is good, beautiful, and true (in addition to Algrebra and Biology). That need seems especially important now in our current political climate.

For all you parents reading along, I encourage you to ask your children not only what they know, but also how they feel about what they know. That might sound silly, but your children will probably surprise you with their insights about themselves and the world. If you study famous artists and composers, you can ask your children how the artist’s work makes them feel. Finally, you can talk about how the characters feel in each situation in which they find themselves during whatever stories you read together. (Sometimes this requires a little guesswork or speculation.) These questions can spark some great family conversations and give you more opportunities to work the gospel into your teaching. What can you do when you feel afraid? Ask Jesus to give you his strength. What can you do when you hear the trumpet section of an orchestra add just the right amount of volume and boldness at just the right time? Thank Jesus for creating something so lovely. What can you do when Aslan dies to save Edmund from the White Witch? Cry as long and as hard as you want to, and them remember Jesus’ sacrifice for you.

Remember:

Emotions + Nothing = Nothing,

Intellect + Nothing = Nothing,

but Emotions + Intellect = Education, Growth, and Wisdom.

[1] Romans 1:29
[2] Romans 2:15
[3] 1 Corinthians 15:57