tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post618263002057414003..comments2024-03-13T21:26:03.011-07:00Comments on Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher: Education Quotes Regarding What's "Relevant" To StudentsDarrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15730642770935985796noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-7689752502587446912010-03-18T14:49:02.200-07:002010-03-18T14:49:02.200-07:00In A Preface to Paradise Lost, C S Lewis contrasts...In A Preface to Paradise Lost, C S Lewis contrasts the characters of Adam and Satan, as developed in Milton’s work:<br /><br />"Adam talks about God, the Forbidden tree, sleep, the difference between beast and man, his plans for the morrow, the stars and the angels. He discusses dreams and clouds, the sun, the moon, and the planets, the winds and the birds. He relates his own creation and celebrates the beauty and majesty of Eve…Adam, though locally confined to a small park on a small planet, has interests that embrace ‘all the choir of heaven and all the furniture of earth.’ Satan has been in the heaven of Heavens and in the abyss of Hell, and surveyed all that lies between them, and in that whole immensity has found only one thing that interests Satan. And that “one thing” is, of course, Satan himself…his position and the wrongs he believes have been done to him. Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament…"<br /><br />One need not believe in a literal Satan, or for that matter be religious at all, to see the force of this. There is indeed something Satanic about a person who has no interests other than themselves. And by insisting that everything be “relevant” and discouraging the development of broader interests, the educational authorities in Britain are doing great harm.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-70974922776892279652010-03-18T07:11:04.935-07:002010-03-18T07:11:04.935-07:00True - but think about the reasoning:
"Even ...True - but think about the reasoning:<br /><br />"Even the course on world history did not escape the board’s scalpel. Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone.<br /><br />“The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Ms. Dunbar said.<br /><br />Removing Jefferson as a major influence on 18th and 19th century revolutions? Dismissing the Enlightenment as an influence on the revolutions?<br /><br />Really?mmazenkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06602797515366983639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-68935667137316794162010-03-18T06:44:45.471-07:002010-03-18T06:44:45.471-07:00If I recall correctly, those were for a *world* hi...If I recall correctly, those were for a *world* history course, not American history.Darrenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15730642770935985796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10348701.post-87164808272434129582010-03-18T04:59:21.359-07:002010-03-18T04:59:21.359-07:00And then, of course, there is the State Board of E...And then, of course, there is the State Board of Education in Texas - making John Calvin mandatory, but not Thomas Jefferson, and making the teaching of the Judeo-Xtian background of the Founding Fathers mandatory, but not the philosophical background of a separation of church and state.<br /><br />Among other mandates.mmazenkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06602797515366983639noreply@blogger.com