Tuesday, February 2, 2021

A "Proper Education"



“The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It's proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or "accessing" what we now call "information" - which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.”
Wendell Berry

On Teaching

“The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.”
What Are People For?, Wendell Berry

"From the early grades, Steve Jobs had been something of a troublemaker. Then one teacher, a Mrs. Hill, recognized he was really very bright, and bribed him to buckle down and study, using money, candy, and a camera-building kit. Steve became so motivated that he even ground his own lens for the camera. In the Smithsonian oral-history interview, Steve said, "I think I probably learned more academically in that one year than I learned in my life." Quite a testimonial for how one teacher can change a student's entire history.


That experience shaped Steve in a way that will come as a surprise to many people. From the very earliest days of Apple, he set up programs that provided ways for students  and teachers - from elementary school all the way through university - to purchase computers at a very steep discount. This wasn't some public relations gimmick; it was a reflection of a deeply held belief growing out of his own childhood experience in Mrs. Hill's classroom.


"I'm a very big believer in equal opportunity.... Equal opportunity to me more than anything means a great education.... [I]t pains me because we do know how to provide a great education. We really do. We could make sure that every young child in this country got a great education. We fall far short of that.... I am 100 percent sure that if it hadn't been for Mrs. Hill in for grade and a few others, I would absolutely have ended up in jail. I could see those tendencies in myself to have a certain energy to do something. When you're young, a little bit of course correction goes a long way." pp 252-253


"Steve had somehow recognized early on that when you want something passionately, you can tap into the power to convince others as well. Not all that many years before, his family lived in an area served by a school he did not want to attend. He announced that he just wouldn't go there. Still in his early teens, he was able to convince his folks to pull up stakes and move to a different neighborhood so that he could attend the school he wanted." p. 254 (Elliot, Jay and Simon, William, The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation)


"Let us put our minds together and see what
life we can make for our children."
— Sitting Bull

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