Lesson 12: Looking Forward
-Education should be decentralized
-It’s the difference between constitutional and bureaucratic rule
-standards of the fundamental characteristics to developing in a person, to make them a good person, a happy person, are known–vitures of character and virtues of intellect, and the fundamental subjects are known, and those should be pursued
-these should be pursued in priority
-there are levels of thing to know that the things of nature are arranged in a hierarchy
The levels can be understood in K through 12 education:
-education comes in two parts
-one part is basic
-basic divides into two parts
-one part is the skills and knowledge that permit one to function as a human being
-human beings have two kinds of virtues, say the classics–
-virtures of character and virtues of thinking
-to practice the virtues is to have good skills at thinking
-you have to be well-spoken, excellent reader, who is numerate, who can use numbers
-these are essential gifts to the human beings
-these are things no other creature here on earth can do
-you have to develop these things
-you have to learn to think critically
-you have to study logic
-logic is the tools of skillful thinking
-so you don’t make mistakes, put things together wrong, you don’t commit what they call any logic fallacies
-you become good at putting things together and reaching the right conclusion about them
-the premises indicate the conclusions that you draw
What you should know:
-basic subjects like history, literature, mathematics, the natural sciences
-you have to know something about what’s really a moral virtue
-the moral virtue of justice
-how you treat others includes the subject of freedom
-how to be an independent person and live their own life
-need some idea, early in your education, about how it all works in your country
-develop a mind so that it can get to a place where it can function well as a mature human being
-there has to be some understanding of God
-necessary for education: civil and religious liberty as political subjects, and intelligent piety, that is what you can know about God
-those are inestimable blessings, and you approach them through sound learning of the Christian faith
Public School:
-it is illegal to teach that any religion is true and others are not true
-Northwest Ordinance is one of our organic or fundamental laws
-in America it says that religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary to a good government and the happiness of mankind
-the United States was founded on the idea of civil and religious liberty
-never should run a school so that Jew, or some other religion, wasn’t welcomed as an equal citizen
-there is something to this not teaching sectarian religion or dogmatic religion in the schools
-the truth is, there’s an awful lot of to know about God that you can just know
-the reason you need to know it because you need to know what the kinds of beings are
-Declaration of independence says that “All men are created equal.”
-not simply true because everybody is different so in what sense are they equal
-argument goes, in the American Revolution, that you can see what human equality is when you compare human beings to the other kinds of beings
-ex. Dogs even though we think of them as family members they are not our equals
-none of them are going to do what is automatic to a child
-from the age of 2 or so, a child can even explain what they can do
-they can see what kinds of things things are
-they can understand how to treat them rightly
Ex. ever think about how it is you’re able to tale?
-we have these words and the words represent things
-the things themselves are kind of hard to explain
Ex. how do ;you know what a dog is when you see one as there are all so different
-we all get a picture in their mind of what a dog is when one is mentioned, may be a different breed but it is still a dog
-same this with a person even though different we know it is a person
-we have the ability to perceive what things are and what things are not
-this ability is fundamental to what a human being is
-Aristotle says that animals use their voices to indicate pleasure and pain, but we use them to indicate justice and injustice, advantage and disadvantage
-justice and injustice is not the same way you treat a cow or a horse or a dolphin
-it is important to see a difference in how you treat all of them in relation to a human being
Ex. you can eat a cow but not people unless in dire straights like the Donner Party
-there is an innate voice that says eating people is wrong
-if animals are below us then what would be above us?
-it is not hard to figure because you all got to do is look around at the kinds of beings and see that some seem superior to others, we superior to dogs
Imagine:
-some being that has our qualities, our best qualities, but they’re perfected
-they’re completely potent
-everything about us that’s imperfect is removed
-you get some picture of a divine being
-you get an idea of God
-God appears four times in the Declaration of Independence, always as a very high being, something to emulate, it is possible, something to obey
***The Bible says that we are created in the image of God
What can we make of it:
-the answer is that we have these capabilities, and they differentiate us from the other things around then
Ex. one of the commands to Adam in Bible–and this seems to me just like the understanding of the human being of classic philosophy–is that he is given some stewardship over the Earth and that is signified by the fact that he is told to give them names
-that is to say, that kind of thing is going to be called this
-none of the animals is given the capability to do that
-if you understand this then it does introduce the idea that you might look up to God
-even uninstructed, looking up to God is natural
-humans look for the more perfect
-everybody loves the good
-the highest form of the good is the beautiful
-as a student you would want to get some idea of that in schools
-you would want them to understand that they’re a kind of thing, and it’s a dignified kind of thing, and there are responsibilities and authorities that go with being that kind of thing
-you could imagine a more perfect kind of thing, which would have more perfect responsibilities and more perfect authorities than we have
***it should not be illegal to teach that in the schools
-it is a shame, even maybe despotism
Virtues of thinking:
-means you have got to toil
-you’ve got to do your multiplication tables
-you’ve got to study your phonics so you can learn to read, and then get good at reading
-then develop skills and reasoning
-get yourself acquainted and right away with the kinds of knowledge there are
–the most important things that you can know about them
***A good school will produce these intellectual qualities in the students
-to do this the students have to work
-school should be a learning environment that is full of intensity and excitement
-everything's got to be organized to get that going on
-this means you need help from parents and friends
-the teachers need to be alert, and active, and knowledgeable, and loving
-this is how you get those virtues which takes time
-no way to get it done faster, so when you take time you get really great results
***Students must develop characters
-everyone develops one
-we get into the world of the moral virtues
-classical teach–such as Aristotle’s Ethics
-the human being is so contrived that they have these two kinds of functioning going on all the time
-one kind of thinking
-the other kind is acting and morality and virtues of character
-the claim is we have these bodies, and we feel our pleasures and our pains
-yet, we have a conscience which is a sense of right and wrong
-we have the ability to perceive the being and rightness for each thing
-both of those things are both operating, and you have to develop the excellences of character
Character:
-the word is Greek, Kharassein, that means to etch or engrave
-to etch into something you have to do it repeatedly
-you have to change its shape
-it goes deeper than etching as it becomes part of your
-it takes time and repetition
-character is indelible
-it is something about you that won’t change
-Aristotle teaches that a really great character, which is rare, is the kind of character that is incapable of taking pleasure in anything improper, that’s not tempted anymore
-Aristotle says a vicious character have etched into themselves, by repeated operation, habits of cravenness, and wanting the wrong thing, and ignoring the voice inside themselves that tells them what’s good, that they are now trapped
-a really strong, great character of a good kind, or a really bad character of a bad kind, you have to develop those
-Aristotle says, you develop your character by making 1,000 choices, and then 1,000 more
-we always want something or think something, or feel some pressure, or some fear, and there is a voice in us telling us not to do the wrong thing here, even at our cost
-if we do this over and over, and over, and over, and we do it rightly then we develop a really great character
-Aristotle even says that most of us have pretty good characters, few of us have really great characters
-happiness is very driven by whether you get that really great one
-even in the classics, who are bagans, before Jesus, they think that character leads you to pay attention to God
-Aristotle say that our youth need to be working on that as they can’’t really get it fully developed while they’re young
-it starts in habit and then it proceeds through choice
-it is what is in you
-you can be made to do the right thing over and over again
-but until you do it, it doesn’t really change your character all that much, because it starts in you
***there is a truth about human freedom in that
-so in school, discipline is not meant to make them do things, as much as it’s meant to get them to do them which does involve some form of habit
Ex. teaching them to line up, and raise their hand, sit up straight, etc…
-education today looks at the teacher as bossing the kids to much
-education today is supposed to be student-centered
-it’s all about the student teaching them to be self-centered, self-absorbed, selfish, etc..
***come to find out it is not all about the student
-the student is the end, and must be treated as a self-actuated being
-it is about the good
-it is about the things to know
-it is about the behaviors that make a student, a human being happy
-the teacher gets the students to pay attention and then they were all participating and working on something they couldn’t figure out for themselves
-when they know one thing they can go on to the next thing until they become just as qualified as that teacher capable of doing anything she can do
-the teacher learned what she can do by discipline, and by work, and by getting inside herself that thing that comes out and emanates to the world
Intellectual virtues:
there are two main groups:
-knowledge of things that never change which accumulates to wisdom
-knowledge of things that change all the time
-we have to have that second kind of knowledge called prudence or practical judgment because we have to choose all the time
-we may be serving conceptions of right that are eternal, but they are always presented to us in circumstances that change all the time
-one of ways you learn that virtue which you should learn in school is to study people who’ve made important choices, risky choices, big choices
-statesmen are good to study for this reason especially the great ones
-study how they made decisions and what the factors were in their decision making process
-then you can apply these things, these criteria, they use, and they change all the time
-but, there is a pattern and a rhythm to them, and you learn it that way
-eternal things, the way you study them, is you contemplate them
-you gather facts about them, and you meditate, and ruminate, and figure on those facts for a long time, and that accumulates to wisdom
The virtues of character:
-there are also several
-but they break down into two main ones
-cardinal virtues: one of them is intellection and three of them are moral in their nature
1st moral virtue:
-intellection = wisdom and practical wisdom or practical judgment or prudence
-intellectual ones start with courage, a hard virtue, an important virtue
-it’s easy to know what courage is as it’s just the right disposition toward danger and pain
-nobody is likely to be guilty of seeking danger and pain, for their own sake, but you actually have to have some critical distance from them because if you don’t, you’ll be a coward
-to have courage you have to sense the danger
-nobody likes pain or to be killed
-great things are done by people who can suffer
-even education, even learning, can feel overwhelming, intimidating, even fearful of failing, thinking you can’t learn, so it takes courage
-courage to know you can’’ learn every thing but you can learn this thing and then you can learn the next thing
-to not give up but to forget about shame, fear, and being overwhelmed and to know you got to do the work
-students need courage and everybody needs courage in their ordinary lives
2nd moral virtue:
-temperance or moderation
-it is the right disposition toward pleasure
-we all want stuff and need stuff
-a lot of the stuff we want and need is very pleasant
-it is an act of moderation of discipline toward pleasure
-little kids need to learn moderation because they are a bundle of wants
-they do not understand why they can’t have everything they want
-you have to teach them that they should want the things that are good for them, and not the other things
-they should give priority–doesn’t mean you can’t do, but learn what you can’t and what you don’t have to, learn to not want the high wants all the time
A good school:
-will teach the beginnings of these intellectual virtues, and these virtues of character
-one of the signs that we are human and self-actuated beings is that you can learn both the intellectual virtues and the virtues of character by being told what they are
-Aristotle’s Ethics describes the operations of a most excellent kind of human being
-Book V: Aristotle says you are what you do
-spend time trying to develop those things since it is in you
-we have to tell them what those things are as human beings naturally want those things
-a good school with teach such things that will lead them to what I described as a capacity to gather ultimate knowledge
-the divide between the basic knowledge and the ultimate knowledge is not strict
-these both have a great to deal with each other and we need to know what it is
***A must is to learn Latin
-Latin is not easy
-it gives you discipline
-the window it opens to the classical world
-the foundation of our own language and others all are heavily affected in the West by Latin and Greek
***the human gift is talking, to learn to talk in one of those foundational languages is a great gift