Common - Not High - Cultural Education (Re: twelfth night)
Nora or Devereaux Cannon
I think I have not been as clear as I would have liked. I am
pretty familiar with public education from the 20's forward and
certainly have no illusions that there was ever a day of
universal belles lettres. But I was not referring to the
cultural knowledge of the elite effete - but to the markers that
let you know you are part of a larger group and react as a
"member/guest" rather than as "unknown/other".
There was a time that enabling a child to identify the
jokes/inside lines/assumptions/taboos of the common (not the
high) culture was seen as having value in education. A person
learning a trade would be consciously instructed in the history
and lore of the trade (thinking particularly of printers with
whom I am familiar). A person whose community was limited to all
members of one faith would learn the holidays and observances of
that faith. etiquette, as practiced by the group of which you
were a member, was taught directly and as a valuable part of
learning, whether it was the mountain superstitious etiquette of
entering and leaving by different doors or the copy book forms of
introductions.
As the world has become smaller and the common culture more
diverse, I think we have substituted political correctness for an
honest instruction on cultural connections. School, especially
government school, intensify the effect because of their very
bureaucratic nature. The result seems to me to be the formation
of a substitute common culture by age peers, to replace a sense
of group that is not taught. It is not an indictment of schools
to say that they are doing what has been asked of them, but it is
a call the think clearly about what it is we are asking. Whether
one is fortunate enough to have the resources (not necessarily a
financial issue, so much as a disposition one) to allow children
to learn their own way or whether one is packing a lunch and
sending little Susie out the door every morning, we are all
spending much of our time in common culture with the product of
that request to emphasize drug avoidance and diversity over the
cues that tell us who we are.
pretty familiar with public education from the 20's forward and
certainly have no illusions that there was ever a day of
universal belles lettres. But I was not referring to the
cultural knowledge of the elite effete - but to the markers that
let you know you are part of a larger group and react as a
"member/guest" rather than as "unknown/other".
There was a time that enabling a child to identify the
jokes/inside lines/assumptions/taboos of the common (not the
high) culture was seen as having value in education. A person
learning a trade would be consciously instructed in the history
and lore of the trade (thinking particularly of printers with
whom I am familiar). A person whose community was limited to all
members of one faith would learn the holidays and observances of
that faith. etiquette, as practiced by the group of which you
were a member, was taught directly and as a valuable part of
learning, whether it was the mountain superstitious etiquette of
entering and leaving by different doors or the copy book forms of
introductions.
As the world has become smaller and the common culture more
diverse, I think we have substituted political correctness for an
honest instruction on cultural connections. School, especially
government school, intensify the effect because of their very
bureaucratic nature. The result seems to me to be the formation
of a substitute common culture by age peers, to replace a sense
of group that is not taught. It is not an indictment of schools
to say that they are doing what has been asked of them, but it is
a call the think clearly about what it is we are asking. Whether
one is fortunate enough to have the resources (not necessarily a
financial issue, so much as a disposition one) to allow children
to learn their own way or whether one is packing a lunch and
sending little Susie out the door every morning, we are all
spending much of our time in common culture with the product of
that request to emphasize drug avoidance and diversity over the
cues that tell us who we are.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fetteroll" <fetteroll@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 7:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] twelfth night
| on 8/6/02 3:22 PM, Nora or Devereaux Cannon at dcannon@...
wrote:
|
| > Because we have so institutionalized education through
government
| > schools
|
| I'm still not sure at what point in time you're comparing
today's education
| to. When has a "well read" type of education ever been imposed
on the
| masses? (Let alone successfully imposed.)
|