I would urge that the yeast of education is the idea of excellence, and the idea of excellence comprises as many forms as there ar...e individuals, each of whom develops his own image of excellence. The school must have as one of its principal functions the nurturing of images of excellence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The aim of education is to fit children for the position in life which they are hereafter to occupy. Boys are to be sent out into ...the world to buffet with its temptations, to mingle with bad and good, to govern and direct.... girls are to dwell in quiet homes, amongst a few friends; to exercise a noiseless influence, to be submissive and retiring. There is no connection between the bustling mill-wheel life of a large school and that for which they are supposed to be preparing.... to educate girls in crowds is to educate them wrongly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Education must, then, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthen...er of the will to explore them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is a very important and fundamental relation between learning and personality development. . . . The two interact in a "circ...ular process." Thus, mastery of symbol systems (letters, words, numbers), reasoning, judging, problem-solving, acquiring and organizing information and all such intellectual functions are fed by and feed into varied aspects of the personality--feelings about oneself, identity, potential for relatedness, autonomy, creativity, and integration.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
How a child is taught affects his image of himself, which in turn, influences what he will dare and care to try to learn. The inte...rdependence of the two is inescapable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is sentimentalism to assume that the teaching of life can always be fitted to the child's interests, just as it is empty formal...ism to force the child to parrot the formulas of adult society. Interests can be created and stimulated.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Surely knowledge of the natural world, knowledge of the human condition, knowledge of the nature and dynamics of society, knowledg...e of the past so that one may use it in experiencing the present and aspiring to the future--all of these, it would seem reasonable to suppose, are essential to an educated man. To these must be added another--knowledge of the products of our artistic heritage that mark the history of our esthetic wonder and delight.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Then again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I... tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meetinghouses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots, and the thousand-fold Relief Societies;Mthough I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar, which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hereabouts our Indian told us at length the story of their contention with the priest respecting schools. He thought a great deal ...of education and had recommended it to his tribe. His argument in its favor was, that if you had been to college and learnt to calculate, you could "keep 'um property,--no other way." He said that his boy was the best scholar in the school at Oldtown, to which he went with whites. He himself is a Protestant, and goes to church regularly at Oldtown. According to his account, a good many of his tribe are Protestants, and many of the Catholics also are in favor of schools. Some years ago they had a schoolmaster, a Protestant, whom they liked very well. The priest came and said that they must send him away, and finally he had such influence, telling them that they would go to the bad place at last if they retained him, that they sent him away. The school party, though numerous, were about giving up. Bishop Fenwick came from Boston and used his influence against them. But our Indian told his side that they must not give up, must hold on, they were the strongest. If they gave up, then they would have no party. But they answered that it was "no use, priest too strong, we'd better give up." At length he persuaded them to make a stand. The priest was going for a sign to cut down the liberty-pole. So Polis and his party had a secret meeting about it; he got ready fifteen or twenty stout young men, "stript 'um naked, and painted 'um like old times," and told them that when the priest and his party went to cut down the liberty-pole, they were to rush up, take hold of it, and prevent them, and he assured them that there would be no war, only noise,--"no war where priest is." He kept his men concealed in a house near by, and when the priest's party were about to cut down the liberty-pole, the fall of which would have been a death-blow to the school party, he gave a signal, and his young men rushed out and seized the pole. There was a great uproar, and they were about coming to blows, but the priest interfered, saying, "No war, no war," and so the pole stands, and the school goes on still. We thought that it showed a good deal of tact in him, to seize the occasion and take his stand on it; proving how well he understood those with whom he had to deal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »