Dana at Principled Discovery has a post about Plato and education. I realized that the roots of the problems we sometimes have in the United States, and parents are facing in Germany, go way back.
From Wikipedia she quotes a discussion of Plato:
"He advocated extreme methods: removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards of the state, with great care being taken to differentiate children suitable to the various castes, the highest receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the less able."
There is always someone who thinks children who be educated by the government. What they really want is for children to be taught certain beliefs. As an extreme example Hitler said:
"When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side,' I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.'"
As parents we need to be constantly working to be informed and involved.
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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, Plato, Hitler, public school
2 comments:
It is frightening, isn't it? I used to always think of Dewey, Skinner and Piaget as the founders of our modern educational philosophy.
But their ideas did not occur in a vacuum. They came from somewhere, and the roots go deep.
Personally, I think this is why we need to start by examining scripture as we are setting up our educational philosophy and not be so quick to pull packaged curriculum. Taking the time to find the roots of an idea can help to discern what the consequences might be of adopting it.
Hello Kate Family:
I have never read that quote by Hitler. Thanks for sharing.
Your post today reminded me again of how medical education is no different. It embraces diapraxis and behavioral objectives for students all to their ruin.
Dana:
I like what you said: "Personally, I think this is why we need to start by examining scripture as we are setting up our educational philosophy and not be so quick to pull packaged curriculum".
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