1 – Our School System & ADHD was my hard-copy response to Oprah Winfrey’s petition to “Share Your Reactions” to her show, 20 September 2010, on our school system, with Bill Gates and “Waiting for Superman” author/director Davis Guggenheim center stage. Taken from a cover letter to Oprah, I state my interest in and my intention with Our School System & ADHD.
2 - "I have had thoughts about our school system ever since we were introduced—Kindergarten, 1946. In 1953, 7th grade, third marking period, I failed everything and clearly remember my thoughts and feelings at the time: the only subjects I like are gym, music, and art, and feeling stupid because of it. I failed everything. What else could I think? I was one of the stupid ones. That was the message, my childhood imprint, my sense of self, and I lived it. Eleven years later in a philosophy course, I was introduced to the curriculum Plato designed for the school system that shaped the populace of his Republic. By the second subject I was sick: 1 - Gym. 2 - Music. In the proverbial “twinkling of an eye,” I felt the full waste of the misdirected energy in the life I have lived thus far—forget the implications for the life I was yet to live—and made emphatic because at twelve my thoughts aligned with that of the father of Western thought: Plato.
(Note: It was learning of Plato’s curriculum in 1964 that laid the foundation for the thinking that follows.)
3 – “This is not about the structure, the teachers, the parents, and the logistics of running it, or even about the heart of it, the curriculum, although I touch on all of it. This is an ideal, a pie-in-the-sky attempt to explain why our school system has never worked—can’t possibly work—because of an instinct, the desire to live a wonderful, beautiful, love-filled life our school system/cirriculum kills in children. Plato’s curriculum feeds and nourishes this instinct and accounts, in large part, for its success; measured by the irresistible appeal it has on children. The hook is called fun, but the happiness nourishes the heart. The significance of this pull on children and what it means is lost, for fun is not respected because instincts, the leading indicators for survival, good and bad, are not understood. The directions our leaders are taking us require some explanation as to why human-nature (our children) finds our school-system dysfunctional.
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Our School System & ADHD:
1 - ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is the diagnosis of a crippled school system that manifests in its product, its Children (the victims); only the medical and educational profession fails to see it that way. They, products of that system, prescribe medication to its victims: the innocent, the Children, as if ADHD were some congenital defect. Children diagnosed with ADHD—maybe energy or intelligence above average—are exhibiting an instinctive response to the school system (curriculum) imposed on them. The Child’s instinct registers a fear telling him what he must endure is so detrimental to the possibility of being all that he could be (an instinct), his little system shorts out, shuts down (depression), cannot handle it, and for some, a hyper-active response we call ADHD develops. For the Child this situation is so scary that we, ourselves, block it. We do not see the Child, a living truth. We brush the Child aside (he’s only a Child) with ADHD and fail to recognize the enormity of the dysfunction within our school system as it relates to the enormity of the child’s dysfunction within it.
2 – Until we know the angst and anguish our educational system creates in a Child and why, we will never make the connection between our school system, ADHD, and the daily killing of Children (the innocent) by Children (the innocent) in the city streets. Do not blame the parents. They, too, are products of the very system the educational and medical establishment are, and they can’t get it straight. We know the school system is dysfunctional, but our school administrators do not see the connection between curriculum and dysfunction and, consequently, the repair attempts are ill-fated.
3 – My goal is to make that connection obvious revealing the dysfunction of our system by revealing a school system that works. Its foundation is embedded in human-nature, which runs between man’s love of life and “man’s inhumanity to man,” and difficult to identify, but needs identification. If one sees human nature, all of it, as an instinct, the validity and merit in Plato’s curriculum is far easier to apprehend, because the mother of all instincts is survival. That’s what Plato’s school system/curriculum serves: survival. Not the mere satisfaction of necessary needs and wants, but instinct’s ultimate striving: to be all that one can be; to live the best life possible. It begins with early childhood imprint and it has to fill a child's greatest desire: happiness.
4 - Instincts: Plato’s goal was his Republic, manhood at its best, which his curriculum nurtured. The first eight grades (the imprint years are all we address; they set the stage for life): Physical Education, for every thing comes through the body; Music for the soul; and Stories that inspire. The educators were groomed to observe, to get to know the Children through their craft. Therein was a potential philosopher-king, what Plato’s system was designed to develop. Plato took it all the way. For us, The Republic is a historical reference, but Plato’s school system is a true straight arrow to the core of childhood, an instinct in Children his curriculum nurtures that must be met and fed in Children, if Children are to flower: Fun.
5 – For a child, fun is a heart-throb; a heart-throb because it is a perfect introduction to life. It’s an instinct that Plato’s curriculum satisfies, which requires a further look at instincts to fully appreciate this one.
6 - Sleep, hunger, thirst, and the elimination of bodily wastes are instincts over which we have no control. I have to whiz is a misnomer for Nature is having her way. These are base-line survival instincts in that nature takes charge. If these functions were left to our discretion, by now we all would be long gone. But the “I” within likes to think he is in control, and takes the instinct to survive as he takes breath, for granted and fails to recognize survival for the fierce instinct it is and, therefore, fails to learn from it. That learning is in the last line of William Somerset Maugham's The Summing Up: Learn to listen to the promptings from within.
7 - What of the desire some little-league baseball players have to play Major League Baseball (MLB) when they grow up? Add to that every desire we had as a Child. Where do these desires sit relative to basic instincts? Are they instincts? What is that first look between a man and a woman that registers within: I will see her again and again and for the rest of my life. Where do these desires register relative to the basic instincts? And what of the desire some of us have to get down on all fours and put our face in that of a puppy? These of course are all positive life inclinations. We do not address the negative inclinations such as fear.
8 - Do we equate these drives, these passions, these little tugs at our hearts, and the fun attached to them as instincts comparable with Basic Instincts? That is the point. There is only one instinct, and that is the mother of all instincts: survival. Every desire, every passion, and every flicker of the heart, and conjoined with the basic instincts, stems from and is rooted in survival. But survival itself leads the way, because Man's Imperative Mode is Self-Expression, and self-expression is the cutting edge, the blade of survival. How we express (live) ourselves tells us and the world just how we are doing--24/7. (Self-expression takes a break when we die.) If hopes and dreams are fulfilled, the world knows it; that's what we self express. If hopes and dreams are thwarted, the world knows; that's what we self-express. That is what we see and hear when children are killing other children with guns. Fun, the instinct in Children satisfied by the pull inherent within Plato’s curriculum, is a by-product of the curriculum. What is it about the curriculum?
9 - If we look at the little-league-r that longs to play MLB, the ballerina that longs to dance, the youngster that wants to be a fireman, no matter the age these desires occur or their intensities, or that they may change as the child grows, these desires are rooted in one: the desire to be all that one can be, and lured by the desire to live fully self-expressed. But all the child knows and sees is fun. The vehicle for that expression is the activity that allows the Child to feel he can reach it. If it is strong, his love for the activity registers within as a calling; his calling, because it is the one activity, over all others, that fulfills that desire and allows his love to flow into being all that he can be. Full self-expression, whatever that expression may be, is the crowning glory of life. That is how we want to live. If Basic Instincts are base-line survival, full self-expression is its cutting edge. And Plato's curriculum sets the ball rolling; it's fun.
10 - A man fights for freedom because he is a man, it is in him, it is his God-given right and he won’t settle for less; but the lure, what pulls him, is not freedom. It is an instinct: To be all that one can be. To live the best life possible freedom is the foundation, the platform that launches the man. That is the concept, the instinct in human nature, and the platform that funds Plato’s school curriculum. The child is free to be who he is, and nothing is more fun than that. (It is also the link that connects the planet’s people as no other, and holds national idolatry, culture, and belief systems under a severe microscope.) The unimpeachable goal in life is to enjoy it to the fullest, and that is by enjoying ourselves, our own lives. (Plato doesn't agree with me on this, because he’s working on the divinity of the soul. I just want children to get though school without hating it and life.) For Children, it begins with Fun. (Fun is both the hidden and brilliant element in Plato’s curriculum.) The joy for a Child in Plato’s curriculum (sub-conscious as it is) is the possibility that he can be all that he can be—the cutting edge of survival. All the child knows, however, is fun and that is his introduction to life. We are interested in a childhood free of pressure; in introducing life to a child with fun; in removing methylphenidate from the child’s adrenals.
11 – (I am not interested in Plato’s Republic. I am interested in his curriculum for grammar school. In high school he introduces the sciences.)
12 - Overview of Plato’s curriculum: Plato states well why and how these three subjects, physical education, music, and tales of inspiration shape the Child for the better, and they convince; but we address the hidden element—fun: an instinct.
13 – Physical Education: The Child arrives at school, goes straight to the warm-up area (a child should never be made to sit down and fold his hands) and checks-in doing push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and wind-sprints, whatever is best for the child’s age and all in warm-up for his selected gym class for that day. (Keep in mind, this workout routine is early Childhood imprint to be carried throughout his life, as early Childhood imprint [culture] is wont to do, and there goes depression, obesity, and diabetes II, and the junk food industry.) There are team sports, Olympic track and field, swimming, gymnastics (rings, parallel bars, balance beam, trampoline, all the Olympic events could be covered), and engaged in when appropriate to the age of the Child.
14 – Music: The world that comes with music--from scripture and Shakespeare to mathematics and acoustics--is staggering, but by graduation all are in touch with it, for all are familiar with at least one instrument. All students spend some time in the school orchestra, but we begin with singing; and what do we sing? Words, which includes stories and reading, and we find set to music the words of John Donne, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, et al. Maybe one music session a week just to discover the world’s beautiful melodies by the world’s great composers: Rossini, Puccini, Mozart, Beethoven, et al. What are pianists to think when they first hear Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata? And what are violinists to think when they first hear Massenet’s “Meditation”? In time, Children will be asking for their favorites.
15 – The Stories (Film/video does not work.): Stories are about imagination; nothing is more personal than imagination. Again it depends on the age of the child. For the youngest, Let’s Pretend, "radio's outstanding children's theater," presented Fairy Tales and Tales of Adventure: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Arabian Nights, along with the heroics of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Robin Hood and Maid Marion, Sir Lancelot and the magnificent Don Quixote. A teacher who loves words and makes them live, a story teller with the imagination to touch the heart of a Child, will take care of the subject and find what’s appropriate; just as the music educator will, as all teachers who love their craft will, and as much as Children love the subject matter.
16 - The destructive note in our school system is in the self-incrimination the Child experiences accepting the judgment expressed or implied by teachers (and parents) when the Child does not gravitate to the subject(s) he must suffer. What is the Child to do? What is the child to think? He blames himself: “I must be one of the stupid ones”—early Childhood imprint. To appreciate that, we look in on Plato’s environment.
17 – Judgment does not exist. Whatever the child becomes it’s because the child is allowed to follow his own course. Someday he may be a military man, iron worker, school teacher, carpenter, athlete, artist, dancer, genius, who knows, who cares; right now it doesn’t matter. All that matters is the child’s introduction to life—that has meaning. It’s to be filled with fun. With the curriculum of Plato, for the first eight grades, the child is allowed to develop into what he is, doing what he likes within the curriculum, and his inclinations are made evident because they are allowed to evolve on their own. In stead of feeling wrong (stupid), he feels right. He likes life. He likes himself. By the time the child enters high school the mold is visible. His inclinations have been established. He senses (instinctively) his walk in life. The teachers are tuned in and know how to guide him. The joy that comes with gymnastics/athletics, music, art, and stories that fire the spirit are good for life.
18 – Curiosity: By the time today’s students reach high school—the ones killing each other in the streets and those caught in the cross-fire—cracking a book will never happen. School, learning, is dead. Not until high school does Plato introduce a book. In our school system curiosity is killed early-on by books, for which our children have no appetite, stuffed down their throats. There is no such killer of curiosity in Plato’s system. Plato’s goals were right: the life and the mind of the child is all that matters, not Athens
19 – By the time these Children reach the ninth-grade, unencumbered by a debilitating school system, books, and “learning,” their chosen field will be of interest, and teachers will have no problem in guiding them as to career. The Child will guide the teacher with his interests and talents revealed, free of fear to evolve and develop. The true blessing in Plato’s system is non-judgment. The Child has confidence in himself, not because of his interests, but because his self wasn’t squelched because of his interests. He is OK, and he has no other point of reference on being. That’s life, and it’s good. As the Child grows enjoying what he does, enjoying life is the end result. As a teenager, he won’t be found in the streets shooting and killing precious life, angry, because he has nothing to live for. That is the statement in the streets.
20 - Yes, there are children who will gravitate to math and science (what a pleasure [Fun] for these instructors to have these students); some will gravitate to architecture, wild-life, medicine, construction, space travel, and French cuisine. Let them. Our job is to encourage their self-confidence by supporting them in their self-interests. We don’t make minds. The best we can do is to give them the opportunity to develop as best they can.
21 - The Structure: When Chicago’s Mid-way airport was empty, struggling (might have been the 80s) and, for a while, they were unsure of what to do with it, I thought perfect. Take that one square mile and flood one-half of it with hangers; not to house aircraft, but to house soccer fields, baseball diamonds, tennis and volley-ball courts, Olympic swimming pools (how many can be had in one hanger?), gymnasiums, Olympic track and field events, along with music studios and performance halls; the other half was left open-space for the above courses in summer and to include winter sports: hockey, speed, and figure skating along with community skating. And then build one in each corner of the city. We have folk with money/capable, and willing and eager to help. Does anyone think ADHD is going to manifest when a school system/curriculum allows the Child to knock his self out? Can anyone imagine it? Is it not obvious how this ADHD diagnosis grew out of our school system? The lack of just physical education, what the body/Child craves, is the major source of the anxiety that creates the havoc in Children we call ADHD. Add to the curriculum music and tales that both touch and enrich the heart, and the Child is in heaven. There is no anxiety or anguish here to cause ADHD. Joining the by-products all ready itemized under our failed school system: depression, obesity, diabetes II, bullying, violence, drugs, gangs, Child abuse, and murder, we add ADHD and methylphenidate.
22 – If we are not playing King of the Hill, if we ruin the lives of our children for fear, caught up as we are today with the global (staying on top) economy, if we are truly caught in the struggle for survival, I suggest the powers that be re-think their modus-operandi, and get off that horse.
23 – To eliminate the by-products of our dysfunctional school system/curriculum, we have to eliminate the source: our school system/curriculum. But as stated in the cover letter, this is about a concept not to build a school that works, as much as a concept to understand why a school system without Plato’s curriculum will not work for Children.
24 - The Teachers: After the first generation the school is launched. The first generation, however, has no teachers from the system. These teachers start cold. But teachers have an instinct for teaching just as athletes have an instinct for the specific sport or event that will best serve their desires to live their best lives. And I trust them, for that instinct is subordinate to the child. They are the ones who hear what is said here better than anyone else. It’s a caring that guarantees success (class structure, lesson plans, whatever). It’s a calling, and it has nothing to do with a college degree. I don’t mind if they have one, and the “calling” may motivate all kinds of degrees, but it’s the desire that gets it done. I must mention Between Parent and Child, by Haim Ginott: Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression. This is the text book. If one doesn't all ready know how to see a child, if the fruit of society is its children, it’s not just for teachers; it’s for parents, administrators, bus drivers, doctors, butchers, in deed, for every member of society, but particularly the teachers. And pro athletes may not go through the changes some do when it comes time for retirement. They may retire to one of these schools as its director, or return to teach their craft, and for the love of doing it. How does this school system compare in math and science to the math and science in our schools today? We let our mathematically and scientifically inclined evolve on their own, and point them in the right direction, as we would an athlete or a musician, when the time comes. Then we will see.
25 - The Problem: In a nut-shell, our educators are attempting to repair the system within the only paradigm they know: the one that produced them; the one that does not work. They have no other point of reference; they’re stuck. The old thinking (curriculum) has never worked and no matter how one beefs it up, it never will. (What happened to thinking out side the box?) Plato’s system is mandatory for the health—physically, emotionally, and mentally—of a child, because driven by an inherent desire to be happy: to be all that one can be. For Children, Plato’s curriculum does not register for its merit, because its merit is cloaked in Fun. Adults know making a living doing what one loves is fun (success). When it comes to Children, however, Fun doesn’t register with success, and therein the problem: our judgment. We associate success with hard work, intelligence (math and science), study, perseverance, and college degrees and lay that judgment on our Children. This only adds to the Child’s stress to cope with a system that all ready has him stressed out—thus, ADHD or depression or murder in the school yard. (How Children want to please, and how sad it all is.) No matter how much money one throws at the school system, no matter how well-intentioned those wonderful teachers are who truly care, a school system will never, ever work if we do not get the curriculum pointed in the right direction. This is about a concept: the survival instinct: fun on the cutting edge is satisfying our desire to live the best life we can.
26 - While preparing this doc, on Ch.7 News, 10 pm, Sept. 23 (three days after the Oprah show), there was a medical segment regarding the Child whose system shuts down because of attention deficit, and diametrically opposed to the hyper-activity of those with attention deficit. They call it School Refusal. Still, they apply the new term as they apply ADHD to the hyper-active Child. It must be congenital. No clue that the string connecting these antithetical states is our school system. They had a victim, too, a teenager afflicted with this syndrome for interview. The newscaster explained the Child’s shut-down during the severe period, when the Child couldn’t relate or even talk to others; a numbing state due to depression.
27 – Depression in this situation is a buffer to protect the Child. But why? This is what we do not recognize (Para 2):Until we know the angst and anguish our educational system creates in a Child, and what within the system that causes it, we will never make the connection between ADHD and [its cause] our school system, much less its tragic results evidenced in the city streets. The fix for this teenager?—what else? Methylphenidate. In truth, the Child was older and could better handle the trauma; although, still on meds. Right behind that interview, they interviewed the mother of Derrion Albert on the anniversary of his death: the Fenger high school student beaten to death before the world on youtube by high school age students. This tragedy is so numbing that we, ourselves, block it after the initial gasp of horror. Also, same night and on Chicago Tonight, a down-state advisory board gave the Chicago 9/28/10 , Melody Barnes, domestic policy advisor to President Obama, said the same exact thing.
28 - The energy and care demonstrated by the people who do care is needed, to be applauded, and for which to be thankful. But without the correct curriculum, I am afraid our attempts at repair within the “old” paradigm will only aggravate the Child further—a curriculum that has all ready failed him.
29 – This is a system/curriculum based on human nature: survival in its highest expression--the desire to be all that one can be—and it happens to be Fun. But it’s the erroneous lives children have to face because of our school system that gives them ADHD, depression, and the medication that accompanies it.
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4 – Since that writing, and because of it, I have received an education. There is a community of schools, out-door schools or “green” schools attempting to curb the debilitating effects sitting behind a desk has on children; there is a ton of scientific research that supports the green school community/initiative through its findings while in pursuit of something else; and there are hundreds of volumes on the philosophy of education published during the last Century alone available for the serious minded. It’s just as well I didn’t know. I may have ignored my response to Oprah’s show, intimidated as I am dwarfed by their prodigious effort, commitment, and, above all, dedication to this subject—their chosen field. Nonetheless, in my cursory investigation of this material, I find my thinking a different take on its repair (foundation). As dysfunctional as I know the system to be, it had nothing to do with speaking my thoughts. I can live with our school system as it is. It’s the repair attempts getting louder and louder since Leave No Child Behind that I find disturbing, and why I voice my opinion.
5 – (The medication to treat children diagnosed with ADHD is Methylphenidate [a milder form of methamphetamine], an amphetamine-like prescription stimulant commonly used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children and adults. “The preferred drug of motorcycle ‘gangs’,” according to CBS News, Fall of 2011, “is crystal methamphetamine.”)
6 – An example of one such school: Education in the Wild aired on ABC’s Nightline, April, 2011. The instructor, Ms Erin Kenny, says (1:51 ): “I strongly believe children won’t be bouncing of the walls if we take away the walls.” And (2:10 ), “that it has been shown that recess actually helps children perform academically.” At 2:40 , “our philosophy is that the children are interest-led, that is, the children are directing the day.” (Involuntary, spontaneous, effortless forms of attention as opposed to deliberately directed, effortful forms of attention.) When the interviewer asks the children what they did all day (3:26 ), one responded, “we play.” (It is our contention that play [fun] is the fundamental principle in shaping the psychology of a child that establishes a healthy attitude toward himself and, consequently, toward life itself. Life for a child must be fun.)
7 – I share these messages not because they are profound; they are common sense. What Ms Kenny is doing is profound, and so is the effect her program is having on the lives of these children. Here is a most wonderful introduction to life, that is, to the mental health of a child. The fun for these children is more than fun; it’s the foundation for a healthy life. Ms Kenny launched her program after reading Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv, and learned of the “staggering divide between children and the outdoors” and decided to do something about it. Child advocacy expert Richard Louv “directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation—he calls it nature-deficit—to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as the rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.” (He could have included gang warfare in the city streets and global terrorism.)
8 – She takes it further:
"If you look at Finland
9 – The scientific research out there is daunting. This link will open a door:
They have devised a cognitive performance test that measures the effect of twenty minutes in an outdoor setting has on children diagnosed with ADHD. They have compared the effect sizes observed here with the effect sizes reported for methylphenidate at peak settings on the same test. By way of comparison, the effect of the park setting observed here is roughly equal to the peak effects (with no side effects of course) of the two typical ADHD medications. But even here it seems the dose of nature—although recommended as a healthy substitute for the medication(s) now used for ADHD—is administered for the same reason the medication(s) is administered is the first place: to help the child better tolerate an emotionally crippling school-system/curriculum. It is our contention the child’s dysfunction (ADHD) in school is his reaction to school, the subject matter, and the wrong-headed reasons with which the child is pressured to “get educated.” Wrong-headed reasons: Our fear of falling behind the economic ball of the 21st Century.
10 – Of the volumes written on the “Philosophy of Education,” I was referring to the bibliography to this page on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
11 – On another front researchers are telling us that children with ADHD have missing DNA:
12 – You may read the article if you wish, but the new study would do well to include the artistically, intellectually, and athletically inclined without the ADHD diagnosis to see if they are twice as likely to have the same missing or extra chromosomes as the children with the diagnosis. For all we know, they do.
13 – If we were to read of parents dosing their children with this drug to keep them out of their hair, what would we think? The medical profession, school administrators, teachers, parents of children diagnosed with ADHD, and society as a whole does not have to suffer that stigma, guilt free as we are. It’s the children that have a problem; let them suffer the stigma (and why?).
14 – According to "CBS Headline News," latter half of 2011, researchers have shown that there is no long-term effect from the use of methylphenidate to treat children diagnosed with ADHD in a two year study period.
15 –According to The Pill Book, 12th Edition, pub. 2006, Bantam Books, p. 695: Suppression of growth in children has been reported with long-term use of the drug [methylphenidate]. Contact your doctor if your child does not grow or gain weight as expected.
16 – One doesn’t have to be a research scientist, or a medical doctor to know there is something seriously wrong with dosing children with pharmaceutical “speed” because they can’t learn. This is desperate. Desperate as in there must be no other alternative? If anger sits on hurt, it raises a question: on what does desperate sit?
17 – If one whittles down this query all the way, it’s rather sad. In Chicago 1/5/12 .) The Powers That Be (PTB) would sooner sacrifice (medicate) the children, rather than look at the school system as possibly having a connection to the atrocious statistic. Desperate sits on fear. The PTB haven’t a clue as to what’s going on, much less how to fix it. So what do they do? Juice the kids. Juice the kids so the kids don’t rock the boat and the PTB can keep the hot seat at bay. If one thinks my condemnation is a little harsh, tell me that after you tell that to a parent who has lost a child to the school system—dead in the streets. So we juice the kids. Could not the school system—system refers specifically to curriculum—itself be the problem? Could not the subject matter a child must deal with and the accompanying pressure to master it cause a child to react the way he does?—and enough of the school-age population to give it a name: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
18 – It is just as absurd to teach every student in class the sciences (to include mathematics) to keep on top of the global economy in the 21st Century, as it is to teach every student in class to sing grand opera to identify that portion of the population (.1%) who possess the qualifying DNA (voice) for an operatic career. The pressure the math and science child has to endure might have something to do with ADHD—and what the child does in the streets . . . after he drops out of school—as Our School-System & ADHD will attempt to show.
19 – Why our educators and school administrators cannot make the connection between the school curriculum and methylphenidate is that they are stuck within the only paradigm they know: the school system that produced them; the one that’s dysfunctional. This is bolstered by the fear of not keeping up with, or staying on top of the global economy of the 21st Century. We run at that fear (survival) with the child as our lance. For our fear the child suffers ADHD and we pump him up with methylphenidate. To push education on children for the reason we do holds the reason under scrutiny. We care not about the direction of the country, but it has come to our attention that that is also a problem. Our leaders are addressing survival with the right tool, our children, but they are applying it in the wrong direction. Our children are dying.
20 – Richard Lewis Nettleship first published The Theory of Education in Plato’s Republic in Hellenica in 1880. The introduction to this publication, 1935, was penned by Mr. Spencer Leeson. He addresses the direction. On p. vi, we read:
21 – There was probably never a time when more thought and care was given than it is to-day to working out the best methods of teaching particular subjects, and to all that concerns the organization and material equipment of the Schools. But there is much dissension and confusion upon what is the supreme purpose, or the ‘architectonic end’, for the attainment of which all the rest exists: and it is useless, as well as illogical, to consider schemes of organization and methods of instruction until we have set before ourselves a clear idea of this ultimate objective. Such and such a scheme or method is best; but best for what? Passing examinations, or ‘getting on’, or training in citizenship, or the development of personality, or what? This primary question needs thinking out. . . . The value in the Essay for us is that it may convict us of sin in respect of our muddled thinking about aims and methods and means and ends.
22 – I am not concerned with the nation’s goals, or the state of society, or the State of the Union ; nor do I care about Plato’s Republic or the divinity of the soul. Not even our dysfunctional school system and what it’s doing to our children set me behind the monitor. It’s the misdirected thinking to repair it that brings me here. For a refresher: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001:
And in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elementary_and_Secondary_Education_Act_of_1965&redirect=no.
It’s the current-day rhetoric to repair it that concerns me. It can only aggravate a situation all ready blood-letting.
23 – Plato’s Republic/citizenry was incumbent on his school system “to foster the growth of the human soul towards the good.” And he asked, “How are we to order our lives for the best?” Rather than have any of that, I gravitate to Plato’s curriculum because it speaks to an instinct in children that to live without its fulfillment, for a child, is practically unbearable: happiness (early childhood imprint). To appreciate the instinct/desire, instincts need explication. This thinking on instincts and how they manipulate our lives was initiated by “what is the creative energy behind every artist, or man's imperative mode--self-expression?” This doc is not about that thinking; it is about its outcome: instincts and how they work.
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