“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
― Aristotle (384 BCE–322 BCE)
Education and intelligence underpin happiness, but an interesting observation is that people attribute the same meaning to the words education and intelligence in daily conversation. Is education the same as intelligence? A general assumption is that an individual who attain a high degree of education also possesses a high level of intelligence. Not essentially, because education and intelligence originate from two distinctly different sources. Arguably, education comes from the “head” and intelligence comes from the “heart.”
Educated and intelligent leaders are mindful of the great gift of intelligence, the universality of humanity, the sacredness of life, the higher purpose of human existence, the blessings and benefits of marriage, children, and family life, and interdependent relationships ―to make people happy. God has given humanity the power of intelligence. It is in the human DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), to enable us to comprehend our relationship with Him and to live peaceful, healthy, happy, and productive lives.
The father of adolescence, G. Stanley Hall, best known for his prodigious scholarship that shaped adolescent themes in psychology, education, and popular culture, made this prediction:
“The education of the twentieth century will develop the heart as well as the intellect.”
― G. Stanley Hall (1846–1924)
People who are educated and intelligent have a high propensity to live happy lives. Paradoxically, when people think of happiness, rarely do they comprehend education and intelligence as fundamental to creating the human ecosystem necessary to obtain and sustain happiness. God has granted human beings, the highest of His creation, special blessings of intelligence, to enable humans to grow as a human family with the mutual desire for peace, health, safety, security, prosperity, and happiness for all humanity.
Formal education is a human construct. In a general sense, the board of education (BOE) decide for the masses in the cycle of training. The shift to a new model of materially based education has fostered new scientific approaches to teaching and learning. Education is responsible for the phenomenal growth of human knowledge. It is a base from which to build stable and happy nations. Learning should take humankind beyond the natural inclination to think of education as principally academic information literacy (AIL). What can the forerunners of yesteryear teach the postmodern world about the challenges that humankind had to overcome, especially the education of women?
“Since a time has come, Mademoiselle, when the severe laws of men no longer prevent women from applying themselves to the sciences and other disciplines, it seems to me that those of us who can, should use this long-craved freedom to study and to let men see how greatly they wronged us when depriving us of its honor and advantages.”
― Louise Labé (1524–1566)
This poignant statement of yesteryear resonates in our postmodern age. It calls to mind the importance of the role of women in the affairs of the family, community, corporation, and nation. Historically, society relegated the role of caring and nurturing to women, the “heart” and soul of the family. Women elevated the joy and happiness in the home. Conversely, men were the “hunters and gatherers,” the “head” and protector of the family, with the instinct to hunt, conquer, gather, and protect the family.
These survival instincts of yesteryear seem to underpin much of the competition, conflict, and unhappiness in the twenty-first century despite the transition to high-yield agricultural and industrial production of foods and other material comforts, fostered by technological enlightenment that fuels automation and mass computerization. The material advancements of society underpinned the separation of the family with the primary provider spending many hours away from home inadvertently weakening the fabric of the home, the first society of altruistic love and happiness.
The growth of fatherless homes and child poverty and the spread of unhappiness around the world might have helped to inspire the need for the education of women as a national imperative of countries. Today, women in academia are responding to the call for a higher form of leadership fostered by “heart” and “head” to guide humanity along a better path to ensure human survival as a viable species. There is also an urgent need for women who are more capable of functioning as the “head” and “heart” of business and industry to transform the competitive male-dominated environment to inform better the happiness of family, community, corporation, and nation.
The vast number of women entering colleges and universities, and graduating at higher rates than men in a representative population is an answer to the higher call because women seem to display a higher capacity for “heart” and “head” leadership. The great concern is for women to preserve the potency of the “heart” as they gain knowledge and equal their male counterparts in the area of “head” leadership. Regardless of gender, education ought to inspire the practice of fairness, justice, reason, realism, integrity, and prudence to engender happiness.
EIGHTEEN EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS THAT UNDERPIN HAPPINESS
Katharine Hansen (2001) writes, “Next to quality of life: Is there anyone who wouldn’t like to live a longer, healthier [happier] life? Studies show that compared to high-school graduates, college graduates have: [sic]
- longer lifespans;
- better access to health care;
- better dietary and health practices;
- greater economic stability and security;
- more prestigious employment and greater job satisfaction;
- less dependency on government assistance;
- greater use of seat belts;
- more continuing education;
- greater Internet access;
- greater attendance at live performances;
- greater participation in leisure, and artistic activities;
- more book purchases;
- higher voting rates;
- greater knowledge of government;
- greater community service and leadership;
- more volunteer work;
- more self-confidence; and
- less criminal activity and incarceration.”
The eighteen benefits of education articulated above present compelling arguments for education as a critical “happiness enabler.” Education has a direct relationship to people’s happiness and their “happiness index” (HI), but only a “wholesome education” (WE) can achieve these objectives. A WE, is an approach to education that focuses on five essential foundations of a student’s development —spiritual (religious), moral, social, intellectual, and physical. These five foundations of human development must have measurable outcomes that are similar to AIL.
INTELLIGENCE ―A LIFE-SAVING GIFT FROM GOD
These new criteria of a WE ought to provide the greatest social and economic benefit to individuals and nations while increasing the value and quality of life. Wellsprings of hope and happiness would flow if education were free or partially free for student’s freshman year university in all countries. Notwithstanding, the real potency of education, the practical benefits are derived when “human intelligence” (IQ) underpin education, which is a life-saving gift from God; unlike animals that are limited to mechanical behavior, humans can promote good or evil, hope and happiness in the world.
IQ is pertinent to aid students with the ability to develop their mental faculties to take on intellectual and academic pursuits. IQ enables students to understand the different concepts of intelligence and education. It helps students to understand the role of intellectual leadership in the world, and it forms the basis for intelligent decision-making as they examine the state of humanity, the fear, the anxiety, and the depression. More importantly, conflict among humans has gone global in ways that no one would have imagined in an era of “sophisticated learning.”
Seldom would an individual think that education and intelligence are synonymous with happiness, yet IQ is a prime influence on the nature of human behavior and prudent decision-making. Likewise, human behavior is the prime influence on happiness. These are the right lessons that enable success and successful living. IQ inspired by “spiritual intelligence” (SQ) guides decision-making concerning the nature and purpose of every human action and endeavor for the advancement and growth of humanity and the preservation of life, liberty, and happiness.
SCHOOLS OF INTELLIGENCE
There are many “schools of intelligence” such as emotional intelligence, character intelligence, social intelligence, scientific intelligence, wisdom intelligence, and leadership intelligence. More importantly, SQ is the element that enables all forms of human intelligence. SQ helps to inform better the human capacity and human limitations. SQ evokes higher moral virtues such as character, integrity, fairness, empathy, loyalty, humility, servanthood, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
The aggregate of all forms of intelligence is essential to a life of fulfillment, but SQ is the primary focus of this discourse. Observe the rise of unhappiness in the world, buttressed by the use of legal and illegal drugs, anxiety, stress, depression, loneliness, and, worst of all, suicide and criminal behavior among children, juveniles, and adults. SQ enables human beings to understand things that the natural mind cannot comprehend because only the spiritual mind can discern those things that are spiritual (1 Corinthians 2:10–14).
Discernment enables the natural mind to understand how to manage human affairs and to release the higher virtues that embody the highest form of innate intelligence. Leadership intelligence or lack thereof is responsible for much of the happiness or unhappiness of billions of individuals in families, corporations, and nations, and among the international community of nations. A high IQ demonstrates the capacity of the mind to comprehend complex problems and derive solutions based on knowledge, wisdom, understanding, character, patience, kindness, sprit-mindedness, genuineness, and mindfulness.
Happiness may seem like an abstract notion, but happiness is a complex set of human conditions underpinned by (1) education, (2) intelligence, and (3) experience, sustained by moral leadership imperatives such as leadership by spirit, integrity, and authenticity, empowerment of subordinates, and the sharing of the fruits of success. It is paramount that all three dimensions be in Concord to achieve the highest imperatives of leadership qualities, but none is a substitute for the other.
This “new” paradigm of leadership intelligence can bring forth dramatic benefits to the lives of billions of people worldwide seeking happiness beyond their “sphere of influence.” These fifteen leadership perspectives of human existence ought to underpin the leadership agenda of all nations. They are for all, and not limited to political leadership. Education and intelligence must, of necessity permeate every aspect of human life.
FIFTEEN PERSPECTIVES OF HUMAN EXISTENCE THAT OUGHT TO UNDERPIN THE LEADERSHIP AGENDA OF ALL NATIONS
- Servanthood leadership versus authoritative leadership
- Gross Social Progress (GDP) versus Gross National Progress (GNP)
- Humanly caused disasters versus naturally caused disasters
- Preservation versus overconsumption
- Moral restraints versus legal restraints
- Rehabilitation versus recidivism
- Cooperation versus obstruction
- Spirituality versus materialism
- Equity versus equality
- Reparation versus charity
- Forgiveness versus retaliation
- Linear growth versus exponential growth
- Botanical healthcare versus pharmacological healthcare
- Faith and freedom versus fear and subjugation
- Environmental preservation versus degradation
The above fifteen perspectives can empower leaders and result in significant benefits that will resonate across every spectrum of human existence. Try to comprehend the wondrous world in which we live, a great gift to humanity, a vast and incomprehensible universe that provides a viable ecosystem, which when managed educationally and intelligently, can serve to inform better, happier, healthier, and productive human lives.
Can any branch of inquiry deny that human beings are the intelligent species on Earth, singled out for a higher purpose, regardless of one’s school of thought or worldview (religious or scientific), or whether one is an advocate for the existence of the world as creation or evolutionary theories? The complexity of the world provides compelling evidence of creation by a superior intelligence.
“The great and incomprehensible secret of the universe eludes the inquiry of man.” Edward Gibbon (1737–1794). The History of the Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, p. 50.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature ―have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
Humanity can accomplish higher visionary goals when intelligence underpins education, but there are preconditions. We must clear our minds of all unhealthy thoughts, all negativism, all preconceptions, all racism, all prejudice, all gender bias, all classism, all judgments, and all fears. Fear of other cultures is a barrier to our ability to listen, learn, understand, and respond to all human needs, wants, priorities, and emergencies. The environment is also a natural repository of air, water, sunlight, fuel, trees, food, land, and many natural elements to cures for our physiological ailments. Human beings have control over this natural repository to sustain the needs of all humanity. Underpinned by an intelligent human ecosystem, ensures our physical health, longevity, and happiness.
CONCLUSION:
Writers, Errol A. and Marjorie G. Gibbs are avid readers, inspired researchers, speakers, and mentors. Their journey, which began with their “search for happiness,” led along paths to “Optimum Happiness” (OH), underpinned by joy, which is a “higher value proposition” for human survival as a viable species than happiness. These same paths await you on your “journey of discovery” —Discovering Your Optimum ‘Happiness Index’ (OHI).
Email: info@gibbshappinessindex.com
Website: https://www.gibbshappinessindex.com
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