Redefining the Value of School
Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc., New York,
1996.
Education is not the same thing as schooling. In fact, not
much of our education takes place in school.
Poverty teaches hopelessness. Politics teaches cynicism.
Television teaches consumerism. But not always.
Schooling can be about how to make a life, which is quite
different from how to make a living.
Most of the questions about schooling are as if we are a
nation of technicians, consumed by our expertise in how something should be
done, afraid or incapable of thinking about why.
Part I.
1. The Necessity of Gods
There are two problems to solve in order to conduct the
schooling:
a) an engineering problem (the problem of the means – where
and when things will be done; how learning is supposed to occur);
b) a metaphysical one (a reason to learn). Not a motivation,
but a reason, somwhat abstract, not at all easy to describe. “For school to
make sense, the young, their parents, and their teachers must have a god to
serve, or, even better, several gods. If they have none, school is pointless.”
(p. 5)
There is no surer way to bring an end to schooling than for
it to have no end.
The author uses the word narrative as a synonym for god,
with a small g.
We need a narrative that tells of origins and envisions a
future, a story that construct ideals, prescribes rules of conduct, provides a
source of authority, and gives a sense of continuity and purpose.
Our genious as humans lies in our capacity to make meaning
through the creation of narratives that give point to our labour, exalt our
history, elucidate the present, and give direction to our future.
We can call these narratives: myth, illusions, ideology.
“Without a narrative, life has no meaning. Without meaning,
learning has no purpose. Without a purpose, schools are houses of detention,
not attention.” (p. 6)
The most comprehensive narratives: the Old Testament, the
New Testament, the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita.
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