Mon, 07 Jun 2010

A Classical Education: Back to the Future

Latin didn't kill me - nor do I remember any of my classmates dying of it. In fact, a core focus on the humanities serves as the best possible basis of an education. To the authors list I would add music and art, but that's about it - and I would eliminate all "physical education", "industrial education" and other such pap. If kids want to play sports, more power to'em - after school and with their own funds. If factories and offices need trained workers (and they do) methinks they would find a classically educated person a much better trainee than one whose education consists of classes in health, psych, PE and basket weaving ...

Classical High School (in Providence, RI) is the best and most demanding educational institution I have ever been associated with. The name tells the story. When I attended, offerings and requirements included four years of Latin, three years of French, two years of German, physics, chemistry, biology, algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, English, history, civics, in addition to extra-curricular activities...

(link) [New York Times: Opinionator]

/Politics | 3 writebacks | permanent link

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On 6/8/2010 06:20:32
Erik Dutton wrote

I must disagree with you on the value of phys. ed. - the ideal of a healthy mind in a healthy body is still a good one, and far too many kids get little or no exercise at all outside of that required in PE classes. I didn't, and while I'm more active now I'm still, at 44, battling the effects of those early years.

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On 6/8/2010 16:07:36
Dave H wrote

Different Experiences

Guess I just had a different sort of experience in "Phys Ed" when I was in school - mine was more like "Ohhh, Haxton, do we have to have *him* on our team?" Despite the fact that I could throw hay with the best of the bunch, and ride my bike 8 miles to Centerville without a break, I dreaded gym class. I got plenty of exercise, and plenty of physical activity, just not in school. Organized sports just weren't (and still aren't) my thing. And to be honest about it, there's a bit of resentment about, too. There are roughly five times the number of athletic scholarships available as there are academic ones - we, as a society, seem to value prowess with a football higher than we do prowess with a cyclotron. I never graduated college primarily because I couldn't afford it - and I couldn't throw a ball through a hoop and get it paid for. My scholastic achievements were worth much less than others skills with bats and balls. I don't think it's a coincidence that a large majority of full scholarship student athletes either fail to graduate or get their degree in "phys ed". How apropo... So we;'ll have to agree to disagree on this one, but thanks for the comment! Be well, Dave H.

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On 6/9/2010 07:55:19
Erik wrote

Yeah, I was definitely a city kid... to be specific, the slow-moving kid who was targeted even by my own teammates (once somebody was forced to pick me) in dodgeball. But I can't even imagine how much worse off I would have been without that minimum of enforced activity. I do agree wholeheartedly that way too much emphasis is put on organized sports - mostly because it's what pulls in the alumnus money - but I see that as a separate issue from PE as a part of the core curriculum.

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