Good Morning Feb 29th, and GoodBYE February!

1. Question – Whose educating you and who are you educating?

2. Thought – This very obvious fact – that each generation is taught by an earlier generation – must be kept firmly in mind…The mental world also has its time-bombs – of obsolete adolescence, now middle-aged and dominating its form room. Hence the futility of many schemes for education. None can give to another what he does not possess himself. No generation can bequeath to its successor what it has not got…If we are skeptical we shall teach only skepticism to our pupils, if fools only folly, if vulgar only vulgarity, if saints sanctity, if heroes heroism….We shall admit that a man who knows no Greek himself cannot teach Greek to his form: but it is equally certain that a man whose mind was formed in a period of cynicism and delusion, cannot teach hope or fortitude.

A society which is predominately Christian will propagate Christianity through its schools: one which is not, will not. All the ministries of education in the world cannot alter this law. We have, in the long run, little either to hope or fear from government.

…All the teaching must still be done by concrete human individuals. The State has to use the men who exist. Nay, as long as we remain a democracy, it is men who give the State its powers. And over these men, until all freedom is extinguished, the free winds of opinion blow. Their minds are formed by influences which government cannot control. And as they come to be, so will they teach. (God in the Dock, by C.S. Lewis)

“All schools, both here [England] and in America, ought to teach far fewer subjects and teach them far better.” (C.S. Lewis)

Wonder what Lewis would say to No Child Left Behind as well as Common Core?