On Remedial Education
Those perceptive readers among you have no doubt noted that on the sidebar, there is a listing of items under the main heading of "Remedial Education." It is no accident that they are there.
I intend on making this set of links (now presently empty, alas) into one which would enable a willing reader to get a proper basic education.
By a proper basic education, I mean one which entails a grounding in the Trivium, the Quadrivium, and what the late Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy called The Cross of Reality.
By the Trivium, I mean the logical (or verbal) subjects of Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. By Grammar, I mean the formal study of the structure of language, the art of learning languages, and the art of learning an articulated system of knowledge. By Dialectic, I mean the formal study of Logic, both deductive and inductive, and the art of reasoning and following the reasoning of others. By Rhetoric, I mean the formal study of prose and verse composition, the art of writing persuasively, informatively, and entertainingly, and the art of thinking inventively.
By the Quadrivium, I mean the musical (or nonverbal) subjects of Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy. By Music, I mean the formal study of singing, reading, writing, and conducting music, including a knowledge of harmony, counterpoint, form and analysis, and composition. By Arithmetic, I mean more properly the subject of number theory, or the formal study of arithmetic, mathematical logic, set theory, algebra, and the various fields of analysis, including analytical geometry and the calculus. By Geometry, I mean Euclidian and non-Euclidian geometry, topology, and visual thinking including the visual and graphic arts. By Astronomy, I mean the formal study of the scientific method, including observation, hypothesis, and experiment, and the development of that method and the body of knowledge obtained from it in the physical, chemical, and biological sciences.
By the Cross of Reality, I mean that division of subjects (developed by the late philosopher Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy) according to the axis of human consciousness with the vertical bar of inner and outer, and the horizontal bar of past and future. Taking that cross in a circle, the past of course deals with human history; the inner deals with the attempts of humans to plumb the depths of human consciousness in literature and the arts; the future deals with human attempts to say what should be, in law, political theory, and economics. And finally the outer deals with what is most real: God's creation, as may be found in the study of nature, and God's revelation, as may be found in the study of Holy Scripture, Tradition, and the Authority of the Church.
While it is unfortunate that there has been no attempt in our school systems to teach people all of these things, which I believe are the birthright of a truly educated individual, I also believe that it is never too late to learn. Or as that great philosopher, Anonymous, once said: The only remedy for ignorance is learning.
posted by Bernard Brandt at 9:30 AM
4 Comments:
Another useful alternative is Fr. Jim Schall's Another Sort of Learning, available for $16.95 (paper) from Ignatius:
http://www.ignatius.com/ViewProduct.aspx?SID=1&Product_ID=31&SKU=ASL-P&ReturnURL=search.aspx%3f%3fSID%3d1%26SearchCriteria%3dSchall
I entirely agree with your assessment of Fr. Schall's excellent work, which is marked by two main points among others: that only those who attempt to ask the great questions of our civilization, and attempt to understand and answer them, are to be considered educated; and also, that in addition to the seventy or so Great Books (pace Mortimer J. Adler) are the thousand or so good books that an educated person should know.
My point, though, was that an educated individual should have, in addition to a rigorous literary education, a rigorous and complete artistic and scientific education as well. I believe that the late Robert J. Heinlein, Jr. said it well: specialization is for insects.
Ah, yes--I agree.
But in the remaining 25 years of mylife (making some reasonable assumptions) I have only about 60 years of study, under your program.
Schall's shorter, surely!
In this context, I'm reminded of what Jimmy Durante said to Gloria Swanson when the latter recommended health food to the great Schnozzola: "Eat it, Jimmy: you'll live longer."
To which Jimmy D. responded: "Not so! It only seems longer."
Seriously, though, I believe that an adult with a good mind could learn the knowledge, skills, and praxis of the Trivium in a year; that adult could also get the same knowledge, etc. for the four directions of human inquiry in another year; and one could get the fundamentals of the Quadrivium in another two to three years. That would leave the remaining twenty or so years (in my case, at 52, perhaps another forty, based on my family history), to extend that knowledge, and the enjoyment of that knowledge.
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