How do you suppose we should do this? — Agent Smith
In the past, we associated virtues with strength, and our honor or reputation was very important along with our dignity.
— Athena
I don't know which past or which "we" that refers to, but it doesn't leave much trace in the history books. Maybe it's just in the elementary school readers and the inscription of statues. Symbolic. — Vera Mont
The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church. The principles of sociability and utility also played an important role in circulating knowledge useful to the improvement of society at large.
Age of Enlightenment - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Age_of_Enlightenment — Wikipedia
What was lacking is a good understanding of what culture has to do with high human potential, liberty, and justice, and what education has to do with culture.
— Athena
Always! You won't change that. — Vera Mont
You're right of course - education would need to be overhauled in order to meet the challenges & capitalize on the opportunities of emerging realities, among which is (some say) rapid technological advancement. How do you suppose we should do this? — Agent Smith
I said nothing about priorities or 'should's'. I agreed that what was lacking was lacking and will continue to be lacking, because nobody has a good enough understanding of culture to fix indelibly into a whole federally mandated curriculum. Especially as culture keeps changing.What? You believe the priority of education should be transmitting a culture based on what was best of the Greeks and Romans? — Athena
I said nothing about priorities or 'should's'. I agreed that what was lacking was lacking and will continue to be lacking, because nobody has a good enough understanding of culture to fix indelibly into a whole federally mandated curriculum. Especially as culture keeps changing.
Every generation prepares its young for the world they themselves inhabit - not the world in which in the children will live when they grow up. Every generation, every faction, every denomination and nationality tries to impart its own beliefs, mores and values to its children - and the children invariably disappoint their parents: they change. The best that can be done is to let 'em at knowledge and let 'em go.
Greek and Roman cultures are interesting to study. So are plankton and whales. So are solar flares and meteor showers. So are poetry and music, math and pottery.
30 minutes ago — Vera Mont
That's a lot like saying Captain Picard is a fictional reality. Have you seen any mathematical realities running around the playgrounds or climbing scaffolds? — Vera Mont
Now what about being an American and what it means to be a good citizen in the US? — Athena
what is important about being Iroquois — Athena
What is important about being a Jew — Athena
Christians and Muslims and Hindus teach their children what is important about being one of them — Athena
Does this mean following Trump and attempting to take over the Capital Building with force and threatening people like election workers and members of congress? — Athena
Some of us believe our democracy is going in the wrong direction — Athena
Do we want to continue ignoring our lack of culture that did give us a lot of liberty? — Athena
Show me one! Mathematical realities are average income, average intelligence, average height, average vocal range, average running speed. What number is "average personhood"? — Vera Mont
Christians and Muslims and Hindus teach their children what is important about being one of them
— Athena
and a lot more besides. People do try to teach their American children all of those things, and they more or less fail. — Vera Mont
Why do they fail? — Athena
Does this mean following Trump and attempting to take over the Capital Building with force and threatening people like election workers and members of congress?
— Athena
I'm afraid it does include that, too. That very large, noisy disaffected minority is not an accidental byproduct of education-for-technology: it's the product of crappy political and economic organization. — Vera Mont
↪Athena The education system is not an issue then - if it has been, as you say, reworked. I'm not complaining, being myself a beneficiary of the US education system in both direct and indirect ways. I don't think I would be where I am (not exactly a happy place and yet better in many ways). — Agent Smith
That would have to include: — Vera Mont
I don't know what you-all, collectively, want. I only know you can't seem to agree. — Vera Mont
Because "the old country" is immediate and real to the grandparents; a nebulous memory to the parents, irrelevant to the children. Because their children's world is different from their own. Because the future is different from the past. Because things change. You can't bring back your grandmother's kind of teaching. It belongs in the past. You can't reconstitute an ideal America that never was. It is what it is and will become what it will become. — Vera Mont
Am I making my point clear? — Athena
Your blindness to cultural differences is as disrespectful of all people as the missionaries and is as dangerous as driving blind. — Athena
Did you learn that in school? — Athena
The education system is not an issue then - if it has been, as you say, reworked. I'm not complaining, being myself a beneficiary of the US education system in both direct and indirect ways. I don't think I would be where I am (not exactly a happy place and yet better in many ways). — Agent Smith
is it ethical for technological automation top be stunted, in order to preserve jobs (or a healthy job marketplace — Bret Bernhoft
I don't know much about education. I don't have the relevant qualification. I remember, rather vaguely, attending classes in high school and then a few lecture halls back in my college days but alas these do not add up to an appropriate credential
to comment any further than I already have which, as you would've noticed, is an example of someone talking out his/her bung hole, er, I mean hat!
God points though. You seem to be aware of the flaws in our system, but as I reported in the climate change thread, something really weird is going on. — Agent Smith
https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil
Can one do evil without being evil? This was the puzzling question that the philosopher Hannah Arendt grappled with when she reported for The New Yorker in 1961 on the war crimes trial of Adolph Eichmann, the Nazi operative responsible for organizing the transportation of millions of Jews and others to various concentration camps in support of the Nazi’s Final Solution.
So, I'm not sure who you have a beef with - the bureaucracy or politicians? The question Hannah Arendt asked is critical to the plot of course.
I'd say we need ta dig a little deeper and try some role swapping along the way. "Are we worthy to be saved, o lord?" muttered the kneeling pries — Agent Smith
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