Well, and now Your Humble Blogger is back on track, so let's punch on through the Conservative Tenets. When last we left Mr. Rossiter, he was up to:
14. The civilizing, disciplining, conserving mission of education
Let me again begin by saying that the author is attempting to portray a mindset, rather than a true set of tenets; he is describing, if you will, the Conservative's perception of the universe. This is particularly important to keep in mind when looking at # 14 up there. Rossiter is not saying that the Conservative would answer, when his little boy asks why he must go to school, "to become civilized, disciplined, and become a vessel for conserving the wisdom of the greats." Few Liberals as well would deny that the benefits of education include learning discipline, preparing the student for civic responsibilities, and conserving such wisdom as still applies. The goals of Conservative education are not, I think, much different from that of Liberal education. There is, however, a substantial difference in emphasis, which (in these days of supposedly limited resources) can lead to substantial difference in practice.
Liberals, in talking about education, often emphasize personal development, critical faculties, and socialization. None of those are anathema to Conservatives, certainly, but they perhaps take a back seat to discipline and conservation. The complaint that eighth-graders don't know when the Civil War was fought is a complaint that the schools are not properly conserving knowledge, a complaint I share and I hope all Liberals share. On the other hand, Liberals view with some horror the spectre of a generation of students who know the Gallic Wars, but can't think for themselves. There is much to complain about, and much to be improved, and there always will be (a Progressive bias of mine), and picking and choosing which to emphasize, and thus which to fund, is where the mindset does its work. What would I emphasize? Well, I think first and foremost the critical faculties (teach 9th graders logic!), and then, probably, the conservation of history and culture.
Deep under all this is a vastly more important question: what is the purpose of education, anyway, and whom does it serve? Mr. Rossiter's Conservative has described education in a way that foregrounds the benefits to society. Much of the justification for public schooling comes from the view that society requires its members to be educated, not for their own sake, but for the sake of society. I lean towards a more individualistic approach; if I could square it with my definition of rights, I'd consider it a right. At any rate, I think we are obliged to educate the ignorant as we are obliged to feed the hungry, not for our own sake (other than for the sake of our morals and conscience) but for theirs.
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.
There’s also a question, as you imply but don’t say explicitly, of who should be educated, and what the role of educated people should be in society.
I’d say more, but I’m in a rush and my thoughts are a bit muddled, so I’ll leave it at that for now.
The civilizing, disciplining, conserving mission of education.
this is who we are, this is how we do things, and this is why. “what do you mean ‘we,’ kemosabe?”
no, more like, spare the rod and spoil the child, eh?
My Best Reader reminds me through back channels that the purpose of these little chats is not simply to disparage the Conservative mindset and the way it is reflected in the various aspects of life, but to attempt to define or at least describe the Vardibidian mindset, and the way that is reflected in various aspects of life. Also, of course, the purpose is to change Your Humble Blogger’s mindset, improve it, broaden it, or at very least shake it up and give it a good airing. Anyway, two-thirds of the way through the C.T.s, let’s start seeing what we can see.
The Vardibidian mindset, in general, looks towards the repair of the world (or progress, or improvement) as the primary task for humans; places high value on liberty (of sorts), equality (of sorts), democracy and participation in civic life, tradition, beauty, humility, variety of experience, and wooden bats. I also place a high value on rigour, like to know reasons for things, inasmuch as possible, and believe that making things up as one goes along is more likely to lead to ill effects than having a reasoned plan, although the inability to deviate from a plan is the hobgoblin of small minds. OK, I’m still working on it.
Anyway, applied to education, I think that (a) educating all children is the single most important responsibility of civilization, and that educating adults is probably in the top ten; (2) education serves the child by preparing him or her to think critically, to have a store of commonly-held facts with which to communicate and from which to progress, to appreciate various kinds of beauty, and by providing a variety of experiences from which to learn patterns of various kinds; and (finally) education benefits society by diffusing power (specifically, the power of knowledge and critical thought, but also by evening out to some extent inequalities of antecedent benefits), by providing it with people prepared to improve it and beautify it, and by establishing some commonly known ISVRs.
How can I make that lengthy description more complete? How can I make a short, snappy version that evokes the longer one? Help me out here, y’all.
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
i guess “no child left behind” doesn’t float your lilypad.
Re describing the value of education — though rhetorically it is effective to say that educating children is the single most important responsibility of civilization, I would suggest that education is #3 on a list in which the top three items are high above everything else:
#1 — Feeding people adequately, esp. children
#2 — Providing a peaceful environment in which to live, esp. for children
#3 — Educating children (and also adults)
I might swap #2 & #3, but abuse is so damaging to the development of anyone abused that I’m inclined to put peace, including peace in the home, ahead. If children are well fed and well cared for, they’ll learn, because that’s what they do. They’ll learn much better if they’re taught well, but the best educational efforts will have a much harder time succeeding if children are malnourished or mistreated.
Chris,
This will probably sound like a rhetorical trick, but them I’m all about rhetoric…
Say that you changed your list around, so that education was first, feeding the hungry second, and peace was third. Still, those three are the top, and a good bit higher than other stuff. An important part of education, then, is teaching the importance of those three things, ideally of course by example. That is, proving the importance of those by doing them, and by explaining that you find them important. Thus, education, properly viewed, entails a Good Life, where if education drops down the list, a Good Life may not entail educating (as presumably it is possible to feed the hungry and work for peace without the extra step of educating children about it). It’s bit Spinoza, and it’s only an indirect argument for the relative importance of peace, sustenance and education, but perhaps a wider society-based argument can be made as well. Something like: an educated populace will feed the hungry and work for peace, but a peaceful but ignorant populace will find feeding the hungry difficult (and maybe unimportant), and a well-fed but ignorant populace will not necessarily work for peace.
Still, I’m claiming a lot for education. I suspect that, at heart, I put education first simply because of the rabbinic teaching that the Master of the Universe created the whole shebang in order than the Torah could be studied. Without a world, the Lord existed, and Torah existed, but there was no-one to study it. For that, the Divine had to create the world. One shouldn’t waste it. Of course, one could look skeptically on rabbinic teaching that make the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, er, us.
Either way, and I suspect you at least are with me on this, education is way more than learning names, dates and formulae (tho’ those are quite important); education is also learning What is Important, and What Isn’t, and how to tell which is which, and how to keep trying for the rest of your life.
My goodness, this is turning into a Commencement Address, ain’t it?
Redintegro Iraq,
-V.