History

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Sphairon — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:45:39 GMT

Caley McKibbin:

I was homeschooled for a while (paid for by the school) after I intentionally got myself expelled. It was 4 hours a week, mostly math, novice teacher without the usual chip on shoulder. F'ing great!

You really pulled that off? I'd like to hear more about it if you wish to discuss it.

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Andrew Cain — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:32:14 GMT

JonBostwick:
History class requires no critical thinking so that every child can have access to what the state wants them to think.

I beg your pardon senior! History is a wonderful subject. The crux of all the social sciences. The crux of society!

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Solid_Choke — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:34:16 GMT

Salamanca34:

Lewis, Tolkien, and Orwell were prophets!

So were Adam Smith and Ayn Rand, apparently.

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Caley McKibbin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:19:43 GMT

I was homeschooled for a while (paid for by the school) after I intentionally got myself expelled. It was 4 hours a week, mostly math, novice teacher without the usual chip on shoulder. F'ing great!

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

DarkCatalyst — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:53:01 GMT

limitgov:

I have news for you, Mr. Lewis. As a teacher in a Texas Title I school, I can say we are already there.

True, but that's only half the problem and in my opinion, it's the less troublesome half. The worst thing about public schooling (and private! I attended both types of schools) is the social environment it breeds ( up through the high school level). Speaking strictly from personal experience, it breeds an environment of extreme conformity. If a child is perceived as in any way different by other children, or "outside the norm" by "teachers", then he better fall into line or else face being an outcast.

Smart and creative children stand out. Independent thinkers stand out. If these people don't have a strong familial support structure or at the very least one strong advocate, many end up being psychologically damaged. This is true in my experience, because I was one of those children and I never had the support or an advocate. You would think that a teacher could serve as an advocate? Think again! Most either don't care or are more interested in their own popularity with the students than helping a singled out and abused child.

I would have given anything to be home schooled. I always get a chuckle out of people who say that home schooled children will not have the same degree of socialization that institutionalized children do. As if interaction with the vapid little herds has any value at all.

Paul

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Bostwick — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:13:15 GMT

Laughing Man:

limitgov:
At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time

He didn't say history.

'Cause every child gets that. History class requires no critical thinking so that every child can have access to what the state wants them to think.

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Andrew Cain — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:48:16 GMT

limitgov:
At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time

He didn't say history.

Re: C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

Salamanca34 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:31:48 GMT

Lewis, Tolkien, and Orwell were prophets!

C.S. Lewis Speaks of Education

limitgov — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:02:20 GMT

"The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic'...

At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time. Let them, for example, make mud-pies and call it modelling. But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work...

Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificiially kept back...

Of course this would not follow unless all education became state education. But it will."

- C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters

I have news for you, Mr. Lewis. As a teacher in a Texas Title I school, I can say we are already there.