Every once in a while, I guess a blog can be used to just state things that you may not get a chance to say in any other context. While I believe that this privilege is often abused, I am presenting some of what I call some of “my intuitive, yet limited, observations”.
We are intoxicated with the ideas and categories of modernity, especially in regard to education. Therefore, our definition and model of classical education is (and should be) foreign. It is not that we need to simplify our definitions, terms, etc. – they are quite simple. While we should be about the work of explaining, giving examples, using metaphors, etc., it is necessary that the audience (readers and hearers of our vision) need to be re-educated, critique the categories of modernity, and be trained in the right terms and categories of education.
Not classical…not Christian…simply the best education (which I happen to believe is a Christian and classical model). In light of these thought I would propose the following:
-In the past, education was not about “education” or “educational theory” but “HUMANNESS”
-the word schola from which we get “school” means “LEISURE”
-most schools today are not providing an education but an “educational experience”
-schools (even classical schools) seek to offer to much…the need is to SIMPLIFY (strip the school, curriculum, down to the essentials – develop these…THEN move to the consideration of non-essentials – our distractions make us ineffective.
-we MUST come to a workable understanding of the LIBERAL ARTS and understand the difference between the liberal arts and the servile arts (vocational training)
-the result: being able to place priority on those things that should be curricular – the core
These are just some thoughts…maybe I will get a chance to unpack these in the near future.
