This chapter is called Descartes and the Cartesian Legacy and here I feel I'm on firmer ground. The previous chapters have been like wondering in an unknown forest but this chapter describes the beginnings of the education I was subjected to and after all these years of homeschooling I now see why I hated it and thought it was sooooo boooriing. It was! Things have not gotten any better in the public schools since, either. What boggles me is how this way of thinking came to permeate everything. To quote Taylor at the end of this section,"It is only when an exaggerated and isolated status of the mind is assumed, and removed from its proper integration within the knowing powers, that Descartes and his legacy gain prominence." It's hard to imagine how this theory took root and especially as developed by Dewey. But then Americans are frequently dazzled by "experts" and as Taylor says,"Deweys' so called pragmatism, as it filtered down to the masses who largely never read a word he wrote, fit neatly into the American view of education for the good life."
While reading this section and especially about Dewey's "pragmatism" I have been reminded of a series of events that happened when my oldest daughter was in 4th grade. We had homeschooled since 1st grade. I had not discovered Charlotte Mason yet but I had read John Holt and I held the belief that she would learn (and retain) what she needed to know without much help from me. Her education consisted of a math workbook and library books strewn in her path. I used the newly issued What Your First Grader Needs to Know as a guideline and would pick a topic, glean picture books from the library and let her have at them. I was accountable to the local school and provided them with quarterly reports. The local principal approached me at the beginning of the 4th grade year and asked if I would be willing to let her be tested in science with the other 4th graders at the end of the year. The school had been experimenting with a new science curriculum composed of hands-on science project kits. These had been introduced to the kids in kindergarten and continued through the 4th grade. It was in-system testing meaning that the results would not go on students' records or be released to parents but used to judge the effectiveness of the curriculum. I asked if I would be given the kits to use. The answer was no, he was just curious to see how she would compare to the public school kids. I laughed and said no. But circumstances intervened and for a variety of reasons I ended up putting her in school mid-year and she took the test. The principal came to me afterwards and told me she had the highest score of all the students. I was surprised to say the least since her science curriculum was mostly books on tape read by Franklin Bramely! Any science experiment we tried more complicated than vinegar and baking soda volcanoes was a disaster. I asked her about the test and she said it was easy, you just had to think about the questions. Ah! There is was! I had inadvertently let her learn to think! I didn't read Charlotte Mason for a few more years but she explained it to me in number 12 of her short synopses of education subsection c,"Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form." It was not that the other kids didn't understand how an electrical circuit works but they couldn't put it into words. We are made to use words for learning. In a PNEU school students learned by language. Nature was observed closely and copied but not dissected! Books were read and narrated and absorbed to the best ability of the individual student. How grateful I am to homeschooling I am that I could give this type of education to my children and recapture some for myself!
The discussion continues at Mystie's Poetic Knowlege Book Club.
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4 comments:
Wow, what an interesting story about your daughter! A somewhat similar thing happened to my 8th grader last year. We had never really "done science" though he liked to watch science videos and putter around with self-designed science experiments in his spare time, and we had lots of field guides and things around the house. (Plus lots of Bramley books). He was enrolled in K12 last year and he scored Advanced in Science even though he was being measured against all the CAlifornia public school kids who had followed a carefully designed curriculum.
I think you are right about Americans and "experts" -- also Americans are very practical, which is a good thing in itself, but maybe means they listen more than they should to pragmatic philosophers. Practicality is great but pragmatism can be a problem.
I think pragmatism has always plagued American society since the industrial revolution. Productivity, results, and bottom lines are our weakness.
That is a great story and conclusion about your daughter. It reminded me, too, of something a pastor's wife once said. Something along the lines of, "Jesus is the Word. We are to be people of the Word and that will extend to being people of words." She didn't draw out anything more detailed than that, but I remembered it when you said we are made to learn through words. Well, wouldn't you know it? God communicates to us through words, and the Word. And guess who set the whole thing up? :)
This idea of words reminds me of Jan Amos Comenius (who CM quotes a bit in her work) and his pansophism. New College Franklin discusses this in their philosophy of education if you can bear to navigate their site. Here is the part I'm thinking of: "I.Word Based. God reveals himself first and most particularly in words, and so literary substance is at the root of pansophism and classical education. The foundation of this principle comes from Christ the Logos-Word. Christ the Incarnate Word and the Scriptures are God’s specific revelation, and this literary prominence carries over into all other subjects and disciplines. For instance the study of physics means reading works of physics, not solely doing experiments in labs. Reading is the core of all disciplines."
Thank you for sharing this story of your daughter! It was very encouraging. I feel like I know truth, but all of this is sort of like breastfeeding--you can't see it or measure it and so at first it is hard to trust that it is there.
Gosh. I really thought I left a comment here before referencing Comenius' Pansophism, but I don't see it. Have I gone crazy?? Anyhow, I believe I quoted from the New College Franklin Philosophy of Education: II.Word Based. God reveals himself first and most particularly in words, and so literary substance is at the root of pansophism and classical education. The foundation of this principle comes from Christ the Logos-Word. Christ the Incarnate Word and the Scriptures are God’s specific revelation, and this literary prominence carries over into all other subjects and disciplines. For instance the study of physics means reading works of physics, not solely doing experiments in labs. Reading is the core of all disciplines.
I was reminded of this in your post and in Mystie's comment.
Your story was a perfect illustration for this discussion, Shari!
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