Researching Classical education models for my current position on the board of a local classical school, I came across an article written by Terry Roberts, director of the National Paedeia Center. Below is an excerpt which seems to contradict much of what I've claimed and included on this blog.
"What we now realize is that we live in a time and place where our technology has outgrown our humanity; where our technological ability to communicate has outstripped our human ability to understand one another. And as a result, we are now in more danger than ever before from the evils bred by a lack of understanding and a lack of shared good will. Thus, it is our responsibility as teachers to reach back into the past for the classical skills of discourse—reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking—and disseminate them to all our students in all our nations. Likewise, it is our responsibility as teachers to teach the classic works of our shared culture that have to do with what is fundamentally human, so that by reading and discussing together, our students come to better understand themselves and each other. These things we must do so that they (and we) might survive as wiser, kinder human beings."
SO . . . ?
I have to agree with what Ms. Roberts claims here. I work specifically with the GATE population in a school district and one of the foundational instructional strategies used in this realm is the teaching of the classics. There is a reason why classics are categoried and qualified as such. They stand the test of time, they are true to everyone, and they will always have something to say. Technology or no technology, the classics will sustain their status. I don't know if technology has the potential to assist humans in surviving "as wiser, kinder human beings." My personal opinion is that technology is creating more complacent human beings. That's sad.
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