COMING DECEMBER 31, 2024!
Behold: On Renewing the Splendors of Education
See Table of Contents by clicking HERE Description. "There is no doubt that American education is in one of its darkest days. It is in the bleak of its midwinter. There is much to be said of this still young democracy, the history of democracies, and what still lies ahead. How low can things go? When will the uptick occur? What will be the catalyst(s) to turn the tide? It is something like watching the stock market. Each day in American education we make millions of investments. Every dollar is an investment. Every hour of teacher time is an investment. Every child, every policy, every electricity bill we pay, every third-party vendor we compensate, every assignment we give, and every parent meeting we hold. It’s all an investment. In the stock market, we may try to time the dip, to wait for the lowest possible time to buy, and then to watch our purchase value and corresponding assets rise as the markets rise. However, education is not this way. We are always investing in education. If we invest the right stuff, the market, so to speak, goes up. It becomes bullish. If we invest the wrong stuff, the market drops. It becomes bearish. Nonetheless, if we were to, like a stock market pro, time the market and determine the best time to get in, this is certainly it. It’s hard to imagine the value of the educational market dropping more than its current place. American education, is, at present, as deep in its midwinter cave as a bear could get. Now is the time to buy the stocks worth buying, to invest the right stuff, and watch the fruit of human cycles, human virtue, human intelligence, and human ingenuity take over. If we do not buy-in now, what do we have to lose? Only our greatest inheritance: our children, and whatever they put their hands to when our backs are in the grave. " From chapter 2 "The Academic Deficit" "Let us briefly imagine education in America as a landscape painting, a kind of masterpiece by Thomas Cole or Turner or Pissarro or Poussin. Education is, of course, much more than that, but the metaphor and exercise are still helpful. In this landscape we see particular parts and features. We see a foreground and a background. We also see a midground. We see shades, shadows, highlights, and contrast. I will not at this time impose objects on your imagination; I will not even tell you how large this landscape painting is or where you are standing when you first see it. Your imagination can fill in the gaps. But here is some information to consider as your mind’s eye makes clear the landscape before it... Take a moment. Take in the above landscape. What do you see? What do you really see? Take one of the bits just presented and focus there. What story does it tell? Add the other parts. What kind of land is before you? Is it somewhere you want to live? Do you want your children there? If something doesn’t change, what becomes of this landscape and the people therein? What else relies on this landscape, and what happens to those collaborative portions of society? Do you want to hang this landscape painting in your house? Above your bed? If this painting were turned into a song, would you want to sing it? Would you want it sung at your funeral? If this painting were turned into a meal, with equal quality and aesthetics, would you want to eat it? Would you feed it to your children? Would you feed it to them for every meal? If education were a work of art, and it is far more than this in actuality and consequence, it is clear that we have turned this work of art into something it was never intended to be, and so its curators are often to be pitied. There is something innate about the social response surrounding the demise of education, the decay of the teaching profession, and the decadence which surrounds modern education; there is something natural in that we feel sorrow and a sense of regret for the person who has taken it upon himself to care for such a thankless and careless task, a work of art that has become so defaced, we have now created whole institutions and movements who decidedly exist in order to recover its former splendor." |