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“No emotion is, in itself, a judgement; in that sense all emotions and sentiments are alogical. But they can be reasonable or unreasonable as they conform to Reason or fail to conform. The heart never takes the place of the head: but it can, and should, obey it.”

- C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

It is okay to feel. Emotions are, by themselves, neither good nor bad. How we act based on emotions may be good or bad, but the emotions themselves aren’t.

We shouldn’t act, think or make decisions, simply because “we feel like it.” The one who does so is ruled by emotions.

It’s okay to feel, but don’t let what you feel define you (determine your thoughts, actions and direction).

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“[Plato said] The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which are really pleasant, likeable, disgusting and hateful. In the Republic, the well-natured youth is one ‘who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with just a distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentle heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her.”

- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

I think what Lewis’ point is that it is necessary to learn and embrace one’s emotions from a young age — to appreciate beauty and good, to abhor the ugly and evil. Children and teens shouldn’t be taught to quash emotions and disregard them; they shouldn’t be taught to value reason only. Learning to reason comes later. They first need to see and accept the world and themselves at face value.

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“For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier pray to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”

- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

I think this means that it is dangerous to teach pupils to disregard emotion and sentiment all together. While there are those who may be overly sentimental and emotional (and may need to control themselves some more and not give in all the time), there are more who are apathetic or even emotional about the wrong things. For them, it is more helpful to “inculcate just sentiments.” If the teacher fails at this, the pupils would be more prone to falling for propaganda and other emotion-rousing arguments in the future.