Classical Education

[tbieter]

http://www.twincities.com/2016/04/19/st ... minnesota/

My grandson, Geno, is in the third grade at Nova.
Last Friday I went to Nova for "Grandparents Day". I met his teacher and had the opportunity to ask about an introduction to Stoic philosophy (I'm currently reading about Montaign, who was influenced by Stoic philosophy) in the K-12 curriculum. He said that his son, who was in the 10th grade, was studying stoic philosophy now.

Unlike the schools in St. Paul centralized public school system, Nova has a coherent educational philosophy and a high degree of autonomy. The school maintains standards. The students wear uniforms. Geno has been studying Latin for three years)

I'm a believer in the charter school movement.

http://www.novaclassical.org/

[Jaded Sage]

I wish I had gotten to study philosophy in high school. If that's what charter does, count me a fan.

[Harbal]

I wish I had gotten to study philosophy in high school.

It's never too late. Why don't you make a start now?

[Jaded Sage]

That's kind of all I do.

[hajrafradi]

I wish I had gotten to study philosophy in high school.

We did that in grade 12. We studied Marxist-materiliasm, as we called reality. I was not graded, because I defected the country before the finals.

I immensely enjoyed the first part of the program, which was a washed-up version of general philosophy (so the teach could keep up with us pupils), but the second part deteriorated into a discussion on the Marxist-Leninist movement, with all kinds of dates and names and party meetings and their resolutions to memorize, and I hated that part. Not necessarily because of the heavy communist overtone -- I would have hated a heavy religious overtone as much or even better -- but it was dry, no meat, nothing philosophical to it.

[blu]

The students wear uniforms

How can that be anything but a discouragement to the individuality necessary for useful philosophical thought?

[tbieter]

The students wear uniforms

How can that be anything but a discouragement to the individuality necessary for useful philosophical thought?

Clothing and fashions qre just distractions from the discipline necessary for real intellectual activity.

[hajrafradi]

The students wear uniforms

How can that be anything but a discouragement to the individuality necessary for useful philosophical thought?

Clothing and fashions qre just distractions from the discipline necessary for real intellectual activity.

There is no intellectual activity that does not involve reality in one way or another.

Therefore involving reality, the concrete, and tangible things is never against any intellectual activity.

"God is in the details", so to speak.

That's A.

B. is that distraction depends on change; and sometimes change can be accepted as a constant, for instance, students changing their attire every day. Wearing different clothes from each other, and wearing different clothes from day to day has never been a source of distraction for me or for anyone I have known in my academic years.

C. Uniformity, however, will stop inherently ad hominem type arguments, such as deference to social class, attractiveness of person, or power by wealth, IQ, or influence. Unfortunately these are not purely expressed only by clothing, but by other knowledge secured in different ways as well. Uniform clothing would be good if the "other" sources of awareness of hierarchical differences could be completely suppressed.

[blu]

The students wear uniforms

How can that be anything but a discouragement to the individuality necessary for useful philosophical thought?

Clothing and fashions qre just distractions from the discipline necessary for real intellectual activity.

So - soldiers, policemen, judges, businessmen are the great philosophers of the age? I think not. The sociological purpose of uniform is to enforce conformity to a social norm. Fashion may be adopted from a desire to conform, or as a statement of philosophical allegiance. But to wear a uniform mandated by someone else is always by definition an acceptance of submission, rejection of individual expression and original thought. It may be beneficial to certain types of intellectual activity where imagination is not required - bookkeeping perhaps - but not philosophy.

[roykfahey]

Classical education is like a very large museum with many beautiful, wonder-filled rooms that could be studied over a lifetime. It is a long tradition of education that has emphasized the seeking after of truth, goodness, and beauty and the study of the liberal arts and the great books. What are the liberal arts? They are grammar, logic, rhetoric (the verbal arts of the trivium), arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (the mathematical arts of the quadrivium). This approach to education also includes the study of Latin.

[Arising_uk]

...
So - soldiers, policemen, judges, businessmen are the great philosophers of the age? I think not. ...

Well I'm not sure about judges but the others I've talked to often have a fairly good philosophical point to make at times.

The sociological purpose of uniform is to enforce conformity to a social norm. ...

Maybe but in our schools it's also been to smooth out some of society's disparities as it's not so nice to be the poorly dressed one in a group and I'm not sure that creating a sense of identity with the institution is always such a bad thing.

[duszek]

Classical education is like a very large museum with many beautiful, wonder-filled rooms that could be studied over a lifetime. It is a long tradition of education that has emphasized the seeking after of truth, goodness, and beauty and the study of the liberal arts and the great books. What are the liberal arts? They are grammar, logic, rhetoric (the verbal arts of the trivium), arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (the mathematical arts of the quadrivium). This approach to education also includes the study of Latin.

Aristotle recommended playing insturments for children so that they become more gentle.