I teach at a classical Christian high school where we spend most of our time wrestling with ancient texts that have, for one reason or another, stood the test of time. There is a lot of pressure to modernize and teach more and more subjects. We don't want our students to be behind in applied sciences and advanced math and to be overlooked for sports scholarships. But there was a time when education was not about getting a job or "the love of the game," both of which are good. Education used to be about becoming educated. Gasp! In fact, it was about becoming educated in, what Matthew Arnold called, "the best that has been said and thought in the world." Consider what C. S. Lewis said in Suprised By Joy:
In those days a boy on the classical side officially did almost nothing but classics. I think this was wise; the greatest service we can do to education today is to teach fewer subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.
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Since I work in the same school, I cannot help but submit a supporting comment. Robert Maynard Hutchins, who I believe was the president of University of Chicago until the 1950's, viewed learning the classics as entering a Great Conversation about the best things or the good things. In an essay of the same title, he stated,
The aim of liberal education is human excellence, both private and public (for man is a political animal). Its object is the excellence of man as man and man as citizen. It regards man as an end, not as a means, and it regards the ends of life, and not the means to it. For this reason it is the education of free men. Other types of education or training treat men as means to some other end, ...
in essence claiming that any other kind of education is basically Vo-Tech. Hutchins went on to become the senior editor of The Great Books (still published by Encyclopedia Britannica)and inspiring thousands of Vo-Tech folks (like me) to enter the discussion about what true virtue looks like in this life.
Chris Baker
O' that we had more university presidents like him!
Did you know that Lewis would have never been able to teach at Oxford if he had taken his exams in a later class. Just after he passed with flying colors, they upped the math requirement. Lewis was so dreadful at math that George Sayer said he never would have passed. Think of what his students would have missed not to mention his influence later generations.
Thanks for the food for thought. I admire your philosophical discussions, and thank God for you everyday. I am proud of all your accomplishments, and most of all your tender heart and caring attitude. Keep up the great work, and and know that you, your family, school, etc. are in my prayers. Love, "Mom" Virginia
Thanks Mom Virginia. I so appreciate your and Leon's comments, love, and prayer. blessings to you both
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