We’ve Long Understood the Value of Education To a Democracy
It’s the birthday of the father of American public education, Horace Mann, who left us with this: “Education is our only political safety. Outside of this ark, all is deluge.”
Sorry, sir. We’ve chosen to ignore science and our plunge into anti-intellectualism in general. But you sure were right; we paid a terrible price in terms of “political safety,” if by that you mean keeping crazy people out of the highest levels of government.
Gotta love the quote in the meme above, too.
How far we’ve fallen.
He was elected to the United States Congress in 1848 after the death of John Quincy Adams, and in his first speech, he spoke out against slavery. He wrote in a letter later that year: “I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the South. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel.”
When he left politics, he moved to Ohio to accept a position as president of Antioch College. “I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words,” he told one graduating class: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”
As I’ve said before, high school graduation should require a year of physics, a year of chemistry, and a year of biology. A year of the same subjects should also be required to get a tertiary degree regardless of major. In addition, at the high school level, students should also be taught how to think logically including how to reach a proper conclusion with syllogisms and how we can be misled by propaganda techniques.
The failure to teach those subjects, or at least the failure to learn them, has become quite evident in recent times.
The reason I wrote “tertiary degree” instead of “college degree” is that in some countries high schools are sometimes called colleges and there are people here in those countries. On the other hand, some Americans are unfamiliar with the word “tertiary”. Writing so people who use various dialects of English can understand can be difficult.
Craig,
Quite right, only those with University degrees should be considered for public office !
Ah, ..you do realize that includes the current President, but excludes Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Frank Lloyd Wright, Craig McCaw,Kemmons Wilson, Marc Rich,Milton Hershey, James Cameron, Ray Kroc, Steve Wozniak,Vidal Sassoon,Walt Disney, etc, even Warren Buffet is derisive of formal education.
Gotcha ! I’ll be sure to keep that list of crazy’s from any positions power…..:)
This, obviously, was not what I was saying. You’re so anxious to twist everything I write. Why?
Marco,
Perhaps you have not learned that some people who have not been formally educated past high school are better educated than some people who have degrees. Unfortunately, education too often stops with graduation, but it need not. People who do considerable independent reading on important subjects and associate with well educated people can become very well educated. One good example was Andrew Carnegie, but there are may other good examples. In case you are unaware, at least one library in Oz was funded by Carnegie’s foundation.
I knew a man who had been graduated from Oberlin College which is a highly respected Eastern liberal arts college. He thought that he was well educated and was an intellectual snob, but his education had very large gaps. He didn’t even know what the stock market was for. His thinking was greatly influenced by prejudices. There are many like him.