On Education

Characteristics and virtues that are important to learning:

Patience

Abba Serenus cautions, "It is a dangerous presumption to claim to understand the nature of anything hastily" (The Conferences:  7.4.1).

Discernment

"For the one who recognizes with prudence what ought to be investigated is very near to learning." - Abba Isaac (The Conferences: 10.9.3)

Intuition

"It often happens that a person who has a sharper wit and a broader knowledge sometimes conceives something false in his mind, while a person who has a slower wit and less prestige perceives something more correctly and truly." - Abba Joseph (The Conferences: 16.12)

Obedience

"But whoever begins to learn by discussion will never enter into the reasons for the truth, because the enemy will see him trusting in his own judgment rather than in that of the fathers and will easily drive him to the point where even things which are very beneficial and salutary wills seem useless and harmful to him." - Abba Piamun (The Conferences: 18.3.2) 

Zeal

"For it is a wretched thing for a person to profess the knowledge of some art or profession and not to achieve perfection in it." - Abba John (The Conferences: 19.5.2)

Humility

 "Humility, then, is the teacher of all the virtues." - Abba Nestoros (The Conferences: 15.6.2)

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." – Charlotte Mason

"Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser; instruct a just man, and he will receive more instruction." - Proverbs 9:9

“Education doesn't make you smarter.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing." - Socrates