always excel and surpass others…~ Homer, Iliad
EXCELLENCE = preeminence, supremacy, valour
Liddell & Scott
“Virtue, wonderful Pursuit in life”
~ Aristotle, hymn to Virtue
“upbringing and learning greatly contribute to virtue”
~Euripides
“To think right, to speak right and to do what is right”
~Democritus
"If you intend to become anything less than what you are capable of becoming, then you will be
miserable all the days of your life. "
~ A. Maslow, Humanistic Psychology
“ALWAYS BE EXCELLENT”
Excellence is a Classical and universal concept, it concerns all people who do not like the easy but they seek the peaks of knowledge and of ethics to actualize their highest potential and talents for themselves and for the whole.
Excellent does not mean perfect according to Aristotle. Excellent is the one who is heading towards perfection based on the criterion of Virtue. The prospect of Excellence is an attitude of life which is capable of confronting any passion that hinders the prosperity of human. The pursuit, the encouragement and the rewarding of excellence is a motivational lever of individual progress and prosperity of a society.
The program “Always Be Excellent” is addressed to children and adolescents. It has a theoretical background in “Excellence” as it emerges from ancient Greek Philosophical thinking and especially from Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics). Contemporary Philosophy is of assistance, the Science of Psychology and the Arts. Excellence is supremacy as to Virtue. Children and adolescents practice the Virtues with the aim of Excellence. Everyone has the ability to acquire the Virtues, but this can only happen through teaching and habit. The Virtues are intellectual and moral. The intellectual ones are acquired by teaching and the moral ones by the action that becomes a habit (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics). “Virtue is knowledge, and justice and prudence and valour, and in this way it may wonderfully be shown that virtue may be taught.” (Plato, Protagoras).
“Youth is malleable and fluid, and lessons are imprinted on the soft souls of children. Just as seals are clearly imprinted on soft wax, so the teachings are clearly imprinted on the souls of those who are still children. It is necessary to settle children’s morals from the outset, from birth. Three things are required. Nature, logos and habit. The fundamental principles of Virtue come from human nature, “logo” I call the learning and “habit” the practice-deed. Parents as great sculptors can craft masterpieces in children’s souls and make their children living images of God. If the child grows up, his hardened heart becomes the reason, that his education is difficult to impossible. It is important that children get used to every good habit from an early age, so that it becomes second nature to them” (Plutarch, The Education of Children).
“While he is still a child, teach him good works. Just as I advise against considering anything more important than the education of our children, in the same way again I claim that we should follow incorruptible and prudent education.” (Phocylides of Miletus).
The Western way of life invests in relation to the education of our children, in the acquisition of specific knowledge for livelihood reasons, in the necessity of acquiring skills for “survival”.
Children need to assimilate mainly self-esteem, intimacy, self-identity, love for work, initiative, autonomy, trust, unconditional love and adolescents mainly independence, identity formation, critical thinking, the formation of philosophy of life. All this is the work of parents, teachers in cooperation with children. Times are reduced and they are considered a luxury, since the priorities are school grades, university admission, the outward image, the virtual reality in which they devote so much time.
Virtues shield children not only to be “good” students but also “good-virtuous humans”. And not only for childhood and adolescence, but it is the “Lessons” according to Plutarch that will become the foundations where they will structure their adult life. Education aims to provide the child with everlasting supplies, which neither time wears out nor illness and old age. (Plutarch, The Education of Children).
*Main Photo: Seth Doyle