The film ‘Braveheart’ won five Oscars out of ten nominations at the 1996 Academy Awards with the loud and defiant shout of “Freedom!” ringing out in people’s ears even now. In the course of the film, William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, questioned his soldiers by asking “What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?” When they saw the might of the enemy, the soldiers rather declared “No, we will run; and we will live” to which Wallace responded: “Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” Aye, freedom!

We might recall another film, entitled ‘Cry Freedom’, looking at the life of Steve Biko, while we may all love the powerful autobiography of Nelson Mandela entitled ‘Long Walk to Freedom’. Many people dream of freedom. Others, though, dream of kingdom, led perhaps by King Richard 111 in the Shakespeare play of that name, who cried out, “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!” as he fought to keep his kingdom. Young people though tend to dream of stardom and enter reality shows that will transport them into that glorious state. In effect, they want relief from boredom. What they all have in common is the -dom at the end (a suffix that means judgment, status, authority).

Interestingly, few would seem to have the same passion for another -dom. In our education system we are passionate, energetic, desperate, fierce, relentless, competitive in our pursuit of knowledge. That is the apparent goal of many people. Schools proclaim in their Vision statement or on their badges that key word ‘Knowledge’. Yet, for all our knowledge, we fail to understand that the knowledge we seek is the wrong sort of knowledge. William Ralph Inge highlighted this difference in saying, “The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.” Frederick Lewis Donaldson had put it more strongly when he said that one of the seven social sins is “knowledge without character”. Knowledge must never be the goal. It is limited and fallible.

Knowledge is nothing on its own; indeed, it is dangerous and meaningless. What we should be focusing on and leading our children towards is another key -dom, namely wisdom. There is a massive difference between knowledge and wisdom and knowledge falls far short. Miles Kington, the British journalist, musician, and broadcaster, is widely attributed with the statement, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad”. We should go further. Wisdom is knowing that knowledge is not wisdom. We need wisdom to know that we need wisdom (as King Solomon in the Old Testament realised and exemplified when he was given the choice of absolutely anything and he asked for wisdom).

Wisdom might be defined as knowing how to use knowledge correctly, appropriately (wisely); it is knowing right from right (not right from wrong – that is common sense). It is knowing how to handle one situation, one person, one occasion differently perhaps than another. It is knowing when it is a time to speak and a time to be silent, a time to come and a time to go.

Our natural tendency in education to pursue knowledge only keeps us from seeing the folly of such relentless effort. Marilyn vos Savant, an American magazine columnist, author, and lecturer, said that “To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe”, yet we do little observation and lots of study. There are no degrees being offered for wisdom and there are no degrees of wisdom. Knowledge on its own will only make us end up wizened, not wise.

Wisdom will give us the freedom we desire. As we look at education, we might echo the words from the film ‘Braveheart’: what will we do without wisdom? We may be like those who say they will study and live, but we need to fight that approach. We might change slightly what wise Wallace said, “Aye, study and you’ll live – at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our educators that they may give us knowledge, but they will never grant us wisdom”. Get wisdom. After all, that will bring the real freedom we seek. Teach our children to be wise. Get it?