What
We’re Not Teaching Our Children
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 1/7/18
Man
cannot live by bread alone, yet how to get bread is currently the centerpiece
of education. The central aim of
education today is careers or jobs. Time
was when education provided broad learning and taught us the meaning of life.
If
this sounds lofty and otherworldly, that’s because it is. But in the recent past, education was more
centered on big, significant questions such as how to be excellent, how to
achieve, and advance the common good.
In
other words, schools once taught philosophy. It wasn’t always called
philosophy. It was most often clothed in
and transmitted through literature. It
was exemplified, of course, by parents and teachers who understood that their
young charges needed some direction in life, some understanding of what matters
most in life and of what inspires people to do and be their best.
Consider the following chapter titles in a tenth
grade literature textbook copyrighted in 1964, the titles indicating the
subject matter of the poems, stories, and essays in each chapter: “Challenge,”
“Principles,” “Love,” and “Death.”
Ponder the following chapter titles in a 1977 American literature (11th
grade) textbook: “The Examined Life,” “The Transforming Imagination,” “The Life
Worth Living,” and “The Large Hearts of Heroes.”
Lofty? You bet!
But lofty, or things transcendent, is exactly what youth are starved
for. I know. I’ve looked into their eyes for five
decades. They have not changed. Still today their hungry eyes don’t hunger
for jobs (bread). They hunger for
meaning, purpose, and a measure of joy.
This doesn’t mean they don’t understand that to eat, we must work. It simply means their fundamental need is not
bread. Their need is to dream, to
imagine, and to catch hold of something bigger than themselves. That’s what Edison did. And Socrates, Steve Jobs, Gandhi, Jackie
Robinson, not to mention the non-famous who have simply lived life well.
Reading
about movers and shakers or little known heroes is beneficial. But who wants to read anymore? Fast moving screens are far less trouble,
especially when you can hold them in the palm of your hand.
Concomitant
with our growing disdain for literature is the loss of manliness that is
occurring throughout Europe and America.
If the West is to outlast the gay revolution and all the transgender
trendiness, it must re-discover what it means to be a man and a woman. It’s past time for people of reason and
common sense to raise holy heck about social trends that are pulling our
children and youth away into absolute insanity.
In
1973 Gloria Steinem remarked that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a
bicycle. In 1991 Anita Hill accused
Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
Steinem, through articles and speeches, spread the feminist gospel,
denigrating men. Hill, for all her
passion in her charges against Thomas, criticized the women who accused Bill
Clinton of sexual misconduct.
Further
evidence of sexual chaos is the recent claim of a Miss Universe contestant that
during pageant rehearsals Donald Trump
made her feel like an object; she who had already paraded half-naked all the
way to the Miss Universe finals. No
loftiness there. Craziness. Schools and
universities are not resisting craziness. They’re fostering it. Parents now
bear all the burden of steering their children right. Schools used to reinforce what parents
taught.
What
we are not teaching our children is that life is temporal. Is it foolish to tell a 15 year old that he
will probably live less than 95 years and that it’s wise to plan those years? Is it cruel to speak of death and the brevity
of life, to raise philosophical questions such as Why are we here? What is morality? Why is virtue a good idea?
Most
teenagers are eager to deal with such questions. Yes, they need to be introduced to the world
of work, to develop a skill that will bring them bread and joy. But they also need to know how to face life,
to practice self-restraint, to embrace anew “our fellow man.”
Such
is philosophy, that is, the simple love of wisdom. It is wise to point our children to something
bigger than a big house and a big car.
There are too many big questions that need answers and too many well-fed
people who are still hungry.
Our
sensate, exhausted culture is in a centrifugal descent. With our institutions – government, schools –
faltering, parents must again lead the way and teach their children well. The future of the nation demands it.
Roger Hines
January 1, 2018
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