Socrates famously exclaimed: \u201cEducation is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.\u201d It is commonly aimed at the mind alone to the exclusion of the heart. Such a learning process is thought without passion, knowledge without virtue, and theory without praxis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aristotle rightly said: \u201cEducating the mind without educating the heart is not education at all.\u201d Rather, it is merely stuffing the person with information without igniting the flame to live with passion: it is mere reflection without reflective life. This is why Benjamin Franklin remarked: \u201cTell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.\u201d An effective learning process includes a component of involvement. It is all about learning by doing. Aristotle called this virtue as \u201cpractical wisdom.\u201d It is the purest human wisdom. It gives the learner an aesthetic pleasure to reflect and heuristic power to do. Theological students sometimes wonder: What is first? Do I first learn and then involve myself in ministry or do I first get involved and then learn? The reality is: one learns as one becomes involved and one becomes involved as one learns. The process is simultaneous. Here at Australian College of Christian Studies (ACCS), we emphasise the process of learning through involvement and active involvement in the learning process: theory and praxis combined. Theory in action and action in theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n