The inherent risks of human learning

As a distinctive human undertaking, education carries risks that are deep and\udenduring. It would be true in an everyday sense to say that these risks are often\udoverlooked, or unnoticed. It would be closer to the mark, however, to say that they\udhave been largely domesticated, or even insured against, by the institutional forms\udeducation has historically taken, at least in Western civilization. Here, we are\udclearly not talking about entrepreneurial risks, fueled as these are by the prospects\udof material profit, though education has more than occasionally been used to promote\uda sense of individual entrepreneurial spirit. Nor are we talking of the risks\udan individual might take to achieve fame and glory. Nor yet are we talking of\udthe risks a group of people might take to win human rights or political freedoms.\udRather, the risks we are calling attention to here are those that are inescapably\ud— not just contingently — connected with the deliberate promotion of\udhuman learning. At stake is nothing less than what we become as human beings\udas a consequence of what we experience as learners. Such consequences include\udcoming to understand and judge ourselves, our human significance, and our prospects\udin certain ways rather than in others; coming to understand and judge others\udand their significance in particular ways; and coming to understand and judge the\udmerits of learning itself in its various forms and possibilities