Half An Education
This post at One-Sixteenth, combined with the one I put up yesterday on Faith and Reason got me thinking:
If we really look at it, our system of education does a pretty fine job of training students in instrumental knowledge. It’s doing exactly what we want it to do. All that’s lacking, according to Nock, is clear thinking about the problem. We must simply let go of this idea that we’re trying to give our students an education, and admit that our actual goal is to train them. We must let go of the idea that our colleges and universities function as the colleges and universities of the Old World. We should admit that they are institutes and academies, rather than universities. We should stop pretending to be something we’re not, and run with what we’ve got.
Now, I don’t totally buy the premise - that we don’t teach thinking anymore. I do think it’s not necessarily encouraged as well as it should be. There are educational drill squads, logic classes, debate clubs, etc. However, they aren’t required, which is unfortunate. Thinking shouldn’t be an extracurricular activity.
Now, back to where I’m going. In my other post, I mentioned that we are better off if we use both reason and spirituality in our lives. Our schools can teach reason, but refuse to even try to teach spirituality (that nasty First Amendment). Is there a way that schools could, without infringing on the establishment clause, encourage spiritual learning? Right now we leave that to the parents. However, many parents are just as inadequately trained in this as they are in teaching algebra. Can there be spritually learned people who can put their dogma aside in a school setting for something everyone could learn from?
If so, how would that be accomplished? An actual religion like Christianity couldn’t be taught (there’s that First Amendment again). Comparative religion? That usually teaches the basics of dogma, but does little for spiritual growth.
I don’t have an answer - at least not the way our current systems are put together. Frankly I don’t know if it’s possible with the extreme Right and extreme Left polarizing school boards with Intelligent Design vs. Evolution.
So, there’s my question, complete with no answers. Consider the floor open.
