In educating students the great hope is that even a small few may find the lost pearl of knowledge and become able to guide themselves in its pursuit. To teach a student how to accomplish certain goals is simply not enough. For a student to say the she has learned a discipline means that if she were alone in the world, she could reproduce the discipline, not from memory, but from understanding. The student must be made to think, without the crutch of a text or notes. In educating the student, the focus should be on teaching the student to understand and not to mimic.

A teacher cannot simply give this education to the student. The student must discover it herself. As Mark Van Doren said, "The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." The teacher is a guide along the path of education. The student must be an active participant and strive to understand. Duke Hwan was told by Phien the wheelwright in Chuang Tzu's classic story, that to read the works of great thinkers before him is to read the dust they have left behind. To understand what these great thinkers understood a student must discover it, with the teacher and the thinkers of the past and present as her guide. To see the shadows on the cave wall is not enough, education must turn the student toward the light.