Ania Lian (ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 18:04:42 +1000 (EST)
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 18:04:42 +1000 (EST) From: Ania Lian <ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au> Subject: Re: Education extended
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On Thu, 24 Jun 1999, Bob Leamnson wrote:
> > On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Christopher Eliot wrote:
> > Doesn't this go to the very heart of every important question about
> > education? What is education for? Who is it meant to be good for?
> > Should we produce good citizens or happy citizens or effective
> > citizens? These are NOT always the same thing.
> > Should we train children to value their country and grow up willing
> > to fight and die for it? Perhaps sometimes.
> > Should we train children to value peace above all else? Perhaps
> > sometimes. {...]
> Ania's suggestions that we *give* students "the opportunity to make
> informed choices" has an appealing ring to it, but turns slippery when
> one tries to think behaviorally, or pedagogically. "The opportunity
> to make informed choices" simply is not a *thing* that any teacher
> can *give* to a student. Opportunities abound and seldom need to
> be "given," unless someone has been keeping them locked up
> somewhere.
But if we look at Chris' questions, it seems that if we were to mould our
students to what is, today, considered to be a happy, effective, patriotic
citizen, or to value peace etc. there is no doubt in my mind that such a
goal implies deprivation of choices and moulding towards the answers which
drive the curriculum, or the political spirit of the country. After all,
Hitlers' happy Hitlerjugend-members were all what education gave them, and
by implication, all that education took away from them. The example may
be considered extreme, but it helps us to reflect on the concerns raised
by Chris. So if education can take away, education can also give, or?:-)
Ania Lian
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