Yesterday I needed access by car to a business, but someone had clogged the driveway between two cars that had parking spaces in front and rear. Befuddled, I released my stress, thinking, “that man has neither education nor courtesy, in essence culture.”

Education is basically a process of applying knowledge, skill and competence. This process involves not only physical development from childhood, but also intellectually being reared up in proper acquiescence of knowledge.

Unfortunately, education in this modern country is appallingly inadequate and deficient. Over and above, billions of dollars are being wasted in Iraq and needed for natural catastrophes as Katrina. One could in our small world expand such budget dilemmas as “Kenai schools may lose 75 teachers, cut electives (Anchorage Daily News, April 13).” Illiteracy is still surprisingly rampant in modern U.S.

One is only proficient a goldsmith in creating a successful life to the extent of one’s own knowledge and insight. The Chinese say, “No tickie, no washie.”

But, education is also a close convoy, even consort, of culture, that colloquially I translate as “having class.” Cultivation ferments and produces desirable qualities of behavior or character. Again, it is primarily achieved by intellectual and aesthetic training. It tillages one’s mind, heart and soul bodies.

When enlightenment and excellence were lacking, Alexander Pope said, “We ought to blame the culture, not the soul.”

Kosmos Josef Recker