Respect the Scholars
Respect is the foundation of civilization. It can be traced back to the most ancient civilizations in human history.
The Assyrian, Romans and Greeks (among many more) had one thing in common: respect. Respect for themselves and respect for others.
They had respect for their philosophs, their musicians, their poets, their scientists, their architects and of course for their scholars.
The respect for scholars is evident in all three cultures. All these civilizations showed respect throughout time by erecting great monuments and statues to honour their scholars.
However, respect is not just something that is innate, respect must be earned. The ancient Greeks provided an excellent example of this. Their poets, mathematicians, and philosophs were the most respected beings in their civilization.
The poets earned respect by addressing “hearts and souls” and made the daily life bearable, meanwhile the mathematicians earned respect for breaking down the daily affairs into numbers, helping people to trade, earn their living and to accumulate wealth. The philosophs on the other hand earned respect by providing thoughts and ideas, enabling people to understand the “miracles” of daily life.
Scholars earned respect for being those who educate the most valuable asset we have. Our children. Scholars have the most difficult job of all.
Scholars have to be unpleasant, they have to inspire our children (and us) and make us use our brains. They have to create “schools”. By writing this I do not mean the building that houses a “school” but building structures.
Schools existed as far back as Greek times if not earlier. The Byzantines were the first to establish a schooling system at a primary level. According to “Traditions” and “Encounters”, the founding of the primary education system began in 425 A.D. . Byzantium education system continued until its collapse in 1453 AD.
Islam was another culture to develop a schooling system in the modern sense of the word, largely brought about by conquests of Greek, Roman and Persian cultures, revealing a wealth of knowledge. A lot of emphasis was put on knowledge and therefore a systematic way of teaching and spreading knowledge was developed in purpose built structures.
Under the Ottomans, learning was given a new dimension as the towns of Bursa and Edirne took over being the main centres of learning respectively.
Today we have universities in every country on every continent. And we should respect the scholars teaching in them. Their job is to develop independent thoughts, not to communicate the policies of governments and politicians.
For what they do, they deserve our respect.
This is not a way to respect them. Maybe someone will finally speak up some day.
