Skip Navigation Links

The missing dimension in education

It's resulted in a sick, sick world.
But seemingly incredible, one college is now supplying that vital Dimension WORLDWIDE!

 

THERE HAS BEEN a tragic Missing Dimension in modern education. Ambassador College is pioneering in providing that Missing Dimension.

This institution, therefore, is unique. It operates on a much larger scale than the three-campus liberal arts college limited to 700 students on each campus. It presents a far broader scope with educational activities worldwide.

 

Education's Stern Responsibility

Ambassador College recognizes the significant relationship between education and world conditions — and the responsibility of education for these conditions.

Statesmen and scientists of world repute say publicly they are frankly frightened. The destructive forces exist today that could quickly erase humanity from this good earth! The number one problem before the world today is the question of SURVIVAL!

Ambassador believes this state of affairs is the chief concern of modern education. The building blocks of civilization are found on the campuses of the institutions of higher learning. The architects of the pattern of society receive their training on these campuses. Therefore education must assume in very large degree responsibility for world conditions. Today's tragic state of affairs has emerged as a result of this Missing Dimension in education.

 

A Serious Look at TODAY!

In fifty years the world has undergone a violent transformation.

Today spiraling crime is rampant, even in residential areas. Morals have plunged into the cesspool. Permissiveness has replaced respect for authority — in the home, in the school, on campus. We have polluted the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that grows our foods. A tenth of us are now mental cases. We face a fatal population explosion. This fifty-year violent transformation has brought humanity to the very brink of Cosmocide!

Modern living patterns have produced alarming increases in unhappy marriages. There is a fatal breaking down of family life. Increasingly, wives are away from home and children, and employed. The divorce rate has expanded rapidly in the Western world. Some psychologists are even predicting that the institution of marriage and the family HOME life will soon be a relic of the past!

The youth — tomorrow's leaders — are given no hope for the future. They are told they must adjust to living in a world of gigantic problems with no solutions. So we have the beat generation of youth in revolt. Everywhere there is unrest, discontent, protest, angry mass demonstrations, racial strife, riots, looting, VIOLENCE!

And today campuses in 22 countries are in the grip of a crisis little short of chaos! Campus moral standards have collapsed. Campus suicides have escalated. University officials appear to be powerless!

This new crisis is merely the climax of this Missing Dimension and the fatal drift of education into materialism. Many educators have recognized with alarm the trend. Yet they protest their helplessness to reverse it. They have simply been caught in the clutch of an established system from which this all-important Dimension is missing!

 

The CAUSE

How did we come to this debacle of civilization?

For every effect there has to be a CAUSE!

The architects of our pattern of society were educated on campuses where this vital Dimension was missing! The very BASICS of essential knowledge were ignored.

Those basics are these: the knowledge and teaching of the true meaning and the purpose of human life on this earth; a discernment of the true values from the false; the teaching of the very principles of right living — of the WAY to peace, happiness, abundant well-being; the building of right character, with a right sense of moral, spiritual and intellectual values. These BASICS are missing from on-campus education generally.

Colleges and universities have been concerned primarily with the intellect. They have fallen into the grip of materialism. They have been training students for positions with industrial and commercial corporations, for specialized fields in science and technology, for the professions — for earning a living, rather than in learning how to live. Character building has not been their concern, generally.

There is one other building block that must also be in the FOUNDATION of a healthy and prosperous society. That is the HOME, and the FAMILY RELATIONSHIP.

This is a sick, sick world, regardless of denials by some politicians. The CAUSE of this acute sickness is the fact that this vital Dimension is missing, on campus, and in the home! Education has neglected not only the moral and spiritual values on campus, but also IN THE HOME. Absence of putting this Dimension into practice in the HOME has been leading to the breakdown of the FAMILY structure. And when the FAMILY INSTITUTION breaks down, civilization is doomed!

 

Restored at Ambassador

Ambassador College came on the world scene in 1947 free from the shackles of tradition. We were not bound in the grip of precedence. Ambassador has dared to recapture the TRUE values — to apply that Missing Dimension in the TWO spheres of needed education — at the same time retaining all that has proved sound and good in educational experience.

There is developing, here, this New Dimension in education. The results are a joyful thing to behold — now affecting millions of human lives!

The very absence of this Dimension on campuses generally, necessitates, now, its installation in the homes. It is too late merely to infuse what has been so sadly lacking into campus education alone, hoping to correct the evils in the succeeding two or three generations. We are now too near the brink of total chaos. Adult education, in the home, supplying the Missing Dimension, is also imperative.

 

The TWO Vital Spheres

This vital Dimension is DOUBLY missing — in TWO vital spheres:

 

(I)

The Campus Sphere: On the campuses the leaders of tomorrow receive whatever intensive education is provided, in course programs of two, four, five or more years. Yet in the organized system that has devolved on our present, the very foundation of all knowledge is absent from curricula. That BASIC knowledge involves the meaning and purpose of life — life's true destiny and how to achieve it. To know what we are and why we are is basic knowledge missing in higher education, generally. Vital basic knowledge involves also the discernment of the true values from the false, and knowledge of THE WAY to achieve them; in other words, to know the way to peace, happiness, prosperity, security, abundant wellbeing.

Since the HOME and a tightly knit FAMILY STRUCTURE is the foundation of a healthy and lasting society, vital BASIC knowledge includes also on-campus instruction on the sanctity of marriage, instruction in a right and healthy type of dating leading to a right mating and happy marriage; instruction in the laws that make for a happy and enduring marriage; instruction on child rearing, child discipline, and the responsibilities of parenthood and a happy family life.

Just as important in this Missing Dimension is personality development, character building, a right knowledge of spiritual and moral values, and respect for law and authority.

But this Dimension — teaching students not only how to earn a living, but HOW TO LIVE — has been ignored. Education has gone materialistic. Emphasis has been on the intellect alone. Students have been left to form their own moral codes. Permissiveness has resulted in a flouting of authority.

On the three Ambassador campuses the Missing Dimension is restored. It is given equal emphasis with development of intellect. Ambassador prepares its students to earn a living — and also, with right knowledge of how to live.

 

(II)

The Home and Family Sphere: In a healthy and happy society, education must begin in the home! It must put major emphasis on the necessity for FAMILY life. Yet in our Western world — particularly the United States — the FAMILY system is breaking down. Few parents have themselves been taught how to start education in the home. Few have adequate knowledge or ability to teach their below-school-age children.

This breakdown of our family system is inscribing the handwriting on our national wall! The need of right education in this sphere is far more vital to the very question of SURVIVAL than is recognized!

It is worth taking time to note a few astonishing facts.

Minority group studies have revealed significant occurrences. These factors throw a new light on, and have a vital connection to problems confronting education now. We take space here to record them briefly.