12059: education and crisis (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com

Since today's news announced that the European Union would provide some funds
for the government to work on education as soon as the "KRIZ" is resolved, I
thought it would be appropriate to share some timely and interesting
philosophical comments by a famous Haitian researcher:
"If education is an attempt to shape a human being according to a defined
ideal, it seems to me that all pedagogy must first know the people to whom
its intended.  It is the first consideration, I am tempted to assert that it
is the essential consideration which must dominate our collective education
enterprise.  However, you know that such preoccupations have never touched
the mind of our statesmen , and I regret to observe that even today while
there is talk of public education reform, neither our writers, nor the
officials have a clue about the existence of this elementary truth.
    It is certainly because of the lack of knowledge of this fundamental law
of pedagogy, that we have created schools from 1804 to this day, all with the
same principle of teaching which is:  teach through repetition the greatest
amount of knowledge to a child or an adolescent, without regards to whether
this knowledge can be assimilated by the brains that receive it, or whether
this knowledge is related to the needs or the evolving conditions of the
society to which  they belong,, and finally if this knowledge can develop or
contribute in the development  (apart from the intrinsic values of
intelligence) of all the more precious values of character which provide
dignity to life and imprint the sense of responsibility in the hearts of
human beings.
    I have said that the organizers of our public education have adopted a
type of top-down universal teaching in the hierarchy of the schools.  This
type of criterion offers an efficiency that is accessible to most people's
understanding.  Since one must show knowledge, one must remember.  It does
not matter what one knows and how one knows.  Therefore, reciting the
subject, as a proof of knowledge must bring about the development of verbal
memory at the expense of all other intellectual capacities.  The clearest
result of this system is a type of psychosis --verbomania-- which is one of
the most common in our intellectual society.
    Would you like to know the elements of this psychological pathology?
It is an ailment whose main characteristic is an irresistible urge to talk
and make speeches.  It is a pathological tendency where consciousness and
will are not always absent, it is a tendency to juggle with words for which
one lacks complete meaning, a constitutional tendency which pushes a group of
individuals (a larger and larger group) , to speak and to create through
speech situations which lack objective reality, and for which they only have
vague understandings, borrowed meanings, and never personal or well
assimilated meanings.
    Would you like an example of verbomania, in writing, may I dare?  I find
it quite strongly in the piece that I will read to you.  It is a letter
handed to the President of the Republic when he visited the town of Gonaives.
 I choose this example because it is recent and it has been reproduced in the
newspaper Le Matin of the 10 of November 1917, without revealing the name of
the author.
    Here is the beginning of the letter:
The people walking in the darkness has seen a great light (Esaie IX)
Mister President,
Your surprise visit to the town of Gonaives on this November 4 of his patron
saint's day, has a bearing not only on the township, the parish,  the
provinces in the Republic of Haiti,, but carries and brings up, after the
exchanged speeches  in city Hall with the enthusiasm and the improvisation at
the moment of your entry where you have been welcomed and acclaimed by this
population of good-will  represented by all the patriots who have heard you
(in your relations with the country as the Head of State, on the Convention's
regime) have admired your wisdom with the tact and the capacity  of the good
deeds to be born in the feelings to be awaken to prepare the good in the
future have approved the leaning of your soul in the deep desire to keep the
unfortunate Nation which is ours from sinking into the abysm of our common
ambitions imputable to all of us."

This is a translation of a few paragraphs from La Vocation de l'Elite by Jean
Price Mars.  First published in 1919.  I think they are still appropriate
today.  The first couple of paragraphs typifying current educational practice
and the rest applies the prontagonists of "La Crise".  "La Crise" is a group
mental condition.  It seems to be permanent.