Sunday, March 30, 2008

J.F.C Fuller on Education and being Educated

Reading Gen. J.F.C Fuller's gem - Generalship, Its Diseases and their Cure and found this rather succinct point on the aim of education (staff generals in his case but conveys a telling point, nevertheless):

It does not really matter much what a certain general did at a certain date, but what is of importance is - why he did it in a certain set of circumstances. The object of education is not so much to discover 'what to think' as to learn 'how to think'. What is, or was, the governing reason of an action? What is, or was, the nature of an army's machinery; what can it, or could it, make? These are the types of questions an educated mind should ask itself.

I remember once attending some French maneuvers, when after an exercise, General Debeney asked a divisional commander to explain his plan to him. The officer began -- 'My machine guns, ...' whereupon he was cut short by Debeney who excitedly roared out : 'Damn your machine guns, I want your ideas."


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