Poetic Knowledge Chapter One

This chapter is called The Validity of Poetic Knowledge and I think Mr. Taylor makes a good argument for the urgent need of this kind of education today. He says,"Poetic knowledge is a kind of natural, everyman's metaphysics of common knowledge." What I took away from this chapter is a hint of what we've lost or more accurately let atrophy. I think all people have poetic souls but Taylor is very correct when he states,"Given that the scientific idea of education is a mechanical model that manifests itself in some from of the "drill and kill" system, and given, in contrast, that the human being is not a machine the conflict produced by the imposition of the scientific idea of learning will also have its negative effect on the emotional life of the learner." I see the "poetry" of so many children lying dormant and unused, even damaged by our current school system. Locally, this system is geared to the high achievers and it doesn't take long for a student to fall behind and be put in remedial classes or even shunted off to the local vo-tech school. I see the value of vocational training but I feel these kids are being given short shrift. We still suffer from what Charlotte Mason describes in School Education, "Our aim in education is to give children vital interests in as many directions as possible--to set their feet in a large room--because the crying evil of our day is, it seems to me, intellectual inanition." It seems that way to me, too.
It's not hard to establish poetic learning in our homeschools. It is usually the natural progression of our days. I think Charlotte Mason has a good blend of poetic learning with rigorous study (we don't learn Latin by drifting around a Latin Reader, we memorize forms!) but how to save our friends? How to promote this way of learning which Miss Mason says in A Philosophy of Education,"Children, I think all children, so taught express themselves in forcible and fluent English and use a copious vocabulary. An unusual degree of nervous stability is attained; also, intellectual occupation seems to make for chastity in thought and life. Parents become interested in the schoolroom work, and find their children "delightful companions." Children shew delight in books (other than story books) and manifest a genuine love of knowledge." There is a promise of healing in these words.