on education
In the interest of proving that I'm capable of posting something interesting, here's a provocative little quote for all of you in Readerland.
"There is only one Education, and it has only one goal: the freedom of the mind. Anything that needs an adjective, be it civics education, or socialist education, or Christian education, or whatever-you-like education, is not education, and it has some different goal. The very existence of modified "educations" is testimony to the fact that their proponents cannot bring about what they want in a mind that is free. An "education" that cannot do its work in a free mind, and so must "teach" by homily and precept in the service of these feelings and attitudes and beliefs rather than those, is pure and unmistakable tyranny."
~Richard Mitchell, The Underground Grammarian, September 1982
In light of the fact that the three of us have recently graduated from a Christian college, I wondered if anyone would have any thoughts on this.
"There is only one Education, and it has only one goal: the freedom of the mind. Anything that needs an adjective, be it civics education, or socialist education, or Christian education, or whatever-you-like education, is not education, and it has some different goal. The very existence of modified "educations" is testimony to the fact that their proponents cannot bring about what they want in a mind that is free. An "education" that cannot do its work in a free mind, and so must "teach" by homily and precept in the service of these feelings and attitudes and beliefs rather than those, is pure and unmistakable tyranny."
~Richard Mitchell, The Underground Grammarian, September 1982
In light of the fact that the three of us have recently graduated from a Christian college, I wondered if anyone would have any thoughts on this.
posted by Heather at 1:03 PM
1 Comments:
Y'know, considering my background, I find myself in surprisingly strong agreement with Mr. Mitchell. (Cue gasps of horror) I would make one tiny modification. Education is also about learning to love and pursue truth, where ever it leads. This pursuit of truth regardless of its source may be what Mr. Mitchell mean when he used the term "freedom of mind" so I'm not entirely sure how much I'm modifying his thoughts. It could be that Mr. Mitchell is basing his objection to "pick-your-adjective" education on the idea that it prevents people from looking outside of their own "adjective" for truth. If that is what happens, then I would have to say that education is walking a tenuous line with brainwashing. Maybe the terms like "socialist education" could be replaced by "education in socialism" or "socialism based education" to allow for the differences between education and brainwashing. :-)
Nice quote by the way. It quite made my afternoon. :-)
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