Question:  I've been studying art for years and years and years, now. So, definitely a modern art education. So, it's basically led me to a very existential way of dealing with other humans. Now, the one thing that breaks this, is when the concept of truth--just stirs--it's very exciting. And, now, my next step is, interacting with other people, I can't help but feel very strong love, for like the story of a person's life.

And, when somebody tells me about--how is it you can teach somebody, when you believe in what they're telling you? I have a lot of trouble telling people they're wrong. I really want to help, and teach, and--I'm 20 years old, I've been in school my whole life. I've been spending my whole life learning, so far. So, when I sit down and have a conversation with somebody, I listen, you know. Anybody, almost anybody. So, how is it? Where do you draw the line, and say, "Nooo." [laughter] It's really hard for me, to--

LaRouche: No. No, you're saying--not hard: It's frightening. It's not hard. It's frightening. It's frightening to take the responsibility of saying yes and no.

But, there's an easy way to go at that, you see. If you have that kind of problem, the way you go at it, is you take the case of Socrates. What did Socrates do? I mean, Socrates: Is he teaching, or is he not? How is he teaching? He's eliciting from people, the contradictions, which they can recognize in their own views. And, then, that opens the door, to now bringing in alternatives. That's teaching. Nothing frightening about it. It's when you get the idea, that you're going, going to say, "I'll lay down this line."

Well, you can say, very simply, "I don't agree with that. I have a completely different picture. Let's discuss it."

What do you think you believe? It's the Socratic method. The point is, you get the wrong conception, of education, as something where you're being rehearsed in passing a multiple-choice examination, which you'll be score for, and the institution that you work in, will get the benefit, if any, of the score you get. You don't get a benefit from it; not necessarily--they get a benefit, because they get more money. If you score nicely, no matter how fake the examination is, and they get a nice score on a competitive examination system, they get more money! And, that's the educational system today!

There's not much to give to the student. Except, as they say in Yiddish, tsouris [ph]. But, a real education is actually reliving the process of discovery of truth. The discovery of truth always involves bringing forth contradictions, paradoxes in what people already think they believe. That poses the question: Oh, if this is the case, and you can't answer the question, what might be the solution? What we're doing about this paradox, is the following. Simple. Just think about it. Don't box yourself in, to a hard-line, university, multiple-choice questionnaire routine: right/wrong answers. The right/wrong answer is not the question. You have to know the right answer. But you have to find out, how to get the other person to it. Which has to come from inside them.

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