"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." — Robert Heinlein.
The really hits home with me on so many levels. As a child, I wanted to know how everything worked, but more than that, I wanted to know how I could do it myself. From art, to music, to legerdemain, building anything and everything, playing with electricity, plumbing. and so much more. Oh, and yes, I can roast a chicken without burning down the house.
Great article. For me, it also means - learning how to cope with failure, especially when confronted with the talents of others.
I've been playing the guitar for decades. When I was young, I practiced endlessly, hoping to become 'as good as' my idol Eddie van Halen.
Until I learned that Eddie makes (made, he passed away a couple of years ago) music, whereas I merely copy music. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I also didn't give up on playing the guitar.
Now I enjoy recognizing a fine guitar player when I hear one, and playing other people's music...
Colin, raising my first of five sons, I asked myself the question posed in the original article: Should I let him be, hoping that he won’t climb any higher, or, if he does climb any higher, hoping that he will not fall? I knew I'd always be balancing that as time went on, and that it would change depending on both the child's character, and their age.
I agree that Littell is offering a "universal standard of competence and character, and rightly confronts "a quiet, civilized rebellion against the sterilized majesty of formal education." Yet, Littell’s additions ,like caring for oneself on a camping trip as equally valuable to learn, belong less as part of curriculum, and more within the realm of parenting. Increasingly, those skills have been outsourced to schools, in what I consider an abduction of parental responsibility in raising one's own children. Not only is school teaching academic knowledge, but it is required to teach essential life skills like cooking. With more and more outsourced to the schools, less and less time is available for what I'd consider education in learning knowledge. To the detriment of our cultures and cultural morality, schools are increasingly spending more time teaching basic skills best learned at home. Ignoring less than optimal living situations, parents previously did this role well in training life skills. While I recognize that while many still do today, many others, even multitudes of others, do not. But, in part, those parents have been encouraged to abdicate their role.
I absolutely agree with you that, ”that intelligence without dexterity is fragile, that morality without competence is ornamental, and that civilization without individuals capable of tending fires, treating wounds, and tying knots is no civilization at all.” Yet, most of civilization culturally impacted, and communal, thereby influencing that morality. How then is the best way for schools to lay that foundational knowledge, the knowledge to grasp that morality?
Some years ago, I offered presentations to mothers on raising sons, from boyhood to manhood. My focus was parents with young boys. Many of these women enjoyed their young sons, and the typical closeness young boys have with their mothers. Many mothers also found a boy's mischievousness, and tendency to risky behaviours challenging, but then have their hearts touched by the unexpected love given to them- like the rose picked from a neighbour's garden. But, at 12, boys are stretching towards manhood, and this was my theme. We are raising boys to be men. What kind of men do we ask that they become?
In several presentations, my teen son entered the side stage in what was then typical North American teen attitude and style, wearing a hoodie and slouched in forward gait. As he did, I began to read this poem, "IF" by Kipling. Most of the female audience were uncomfortable with that teen, surely that would not become their son. My theme was to impress upon these mothers that we are raising Men, men we want to feel proud of as their mothers, men who knew the value of living a virtuous lie, filled with generosity and grace to others, as well as ways to handle the temptations life brings to us all. To do this, they required a comprehensive education that included reading the classics, where the follies of humans are revealed, as well as philosophy and history.Most essentially, these now teen boys required from their mothers the freedom to ask any question, and to engage with us and others, to ponder what matters. As I read the poem, slowly, my son straightened his shoulders, removed the hoodie, and stood as a capable, confidant young man. For a flourish, I handed him a top hat.
As well, these boys require what Littell stated, that as parents we must set about making a list of " skills of hand, eye, ear, or brain which will enlarge, deepen, and ripen him as a human being.” Us, the parents.
Schools' role is to lay foundational knowledge for questions to deeply ponder. There have been increasing requests for high schools to offer courses in finances and parenting. While I understand the concerns, I struggle with what is thereby lost , as it is often providing these students with education of learning academic knowledge, and seeing its relevance to life. .
As always, complex issues are challenging to parse, and this is core to the challenge in revisioning schooling in an AI saturated world. More life skills into the curriculum means less time arming students with essential educational skills that provide foundational understanding. This is all the more critical in the cognitive warfare we are battling. Not everyone can or should pursue higher education, but, learning of history, geography, geopolitics and classic literature impacts cultural understanding, and the value of morality in the future. It also provides knowledge of what is means to be a human. Good teachers do this well. Great teachers can change lives.
I’d be most interested in learning your students' responses to you sharing Littell’s article, and if, perhaps, one of them has ever revised it to reflect their version.
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." — Robert Heinlein.
The beauty and tragedy of the hand that writes, meeting the craftsperson...
The really hits home with me on so many levels. As a child, I wanted to know how everything worked, but more than that, I wanted to know how I could do it myself. From art, to music, to legerdemain, building anything and everything, playing with electricity, plumbing. and so much more. Oh, and yes, I can roast a chicken without burning down the house.
Wow! A great article!
Great article. For me, it also means - learning how to cope with failure, especially when confronted with the talents of others.
I've been playing the guitar for decades. When I was young, I practiced endlessly, hoping to become 'as good as' my idol Eddie van Halen.
Until I learned that Eddie makes (made, he passed away a couple of years ago) music, whereas I merely copy music. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I also didn't give up on playing the guitar.
Now I enjoy recognizing a fine guitar player when I hear one, and playing other people's music...
Colin, raising my first of five sons, I asked myself the question posed in the original article: Should I let him be, hoping that he won’t climb any higher, or, if he does climb any higher, hoping that he will not fall? I knew I'd always be balancing that as time went on, and that it would change depending on both the child's character, and their age.
I agree that Littell is offering a "universal standard of competence and character, and rightly confronts "a quiet, civilized rebellion against the sterilized majesty of formal education." Yet, Littell’s additions ,like caring for oneself on a camping trip as equally valuable to learn, belong less as part of curriculum, and more within the realm of parenting. Increasingly, those skills have been outsourced to schools, in what I consider an abduction of parental responsibility in raising one's own children. Not only is school teaching academic knowledge, but it is required to teach essential life skills like cooking. With more and more outsourced to the schools, less and less time is available for what I'd consider education in learning knowledge. To the detriment of our cultures and cultural morality, schools are increasingly spending more time teaching basic skills best learned at home. Ignoring less than optimal living situations, parents previously did this role well in training life skills. While I recognize that while many still do today, many others, even multitudes of others, do not. But, in part, those parents have been encouraged to abdicate their role.
I absolutely agree with you that, ”that intelligence without dexterity is fragile, that morality without competence is ornamental, and that civilization without individuals capable of tending fires, treating wounds, and tying knots is no civilization at all.” Yet, most of civilization culturally impacted, and communal, thereby influencing that morality. How then is the best way for schools to lay that foundational knowledge, the knowledge to grasp that morality?
Some years ago, I offered presentations to mothers on raising sons, from boyhood to manhood. My focus was parents with young boys. Many of these women enjoyed their young sons, and the typical closeness young boys have with their mothers. Many mothers also found a boy's mischievousness, and tendency to risky behaviours challenging, but then have their hearts touched by the unexpected love given to them- like the rose picked from a neighbour's garden. But, at 12, boys are stretching towards manhood, and this was my theme. We are raising boys to be men. What kind of men do we ask that they become?
In several presentations, my teen son entered the side stage in what was then typical North American teen attitude and style, wearing a hoodie and slouched in forward gait. As he did, I began to read this poem, "IF" by Kipling. Most of the female audience were uncomfortable with that teen, surely that would not become their son. My theme was to impress upon these mothers that we are raising Men, men we want to feel proud of as their mothers, men who knew the value of living a virtuous lie, filled with generosity and grace to others, as well as ways to handle the temptations life brings to us all. To do this, they required a comprehensive education that included reading the classics, where the follies of humans are revealed, as well as philosophy and history.Most essentially, these now teen boys required from their mothers the freedom to ask any question, and to engage with us and others, to ponder what matters. As I read the poem, slowly, my son straightened his shoulders, removed the hoodie, and stood as a capable, confidant young man. For a flourish, I handed him a top hat.
As well, these boys require what Littell stated, that as parents we must set about making a list of " skills of hand, eye, ear, or brain which will enlarge, deepen, and ripen him as a human being.” Us, the parents.
Schools' role is to lay foundational knowledge for questions to deeply ponder. There have been increasing requests for high schools to offer courses in finances and parenting. While I understand the concerns, I struggle with what is thereby lost , as it is often providing these students with education of learning academic knowledge, and seeing its relevance to life. .
As always, complex issues are challenging to parse, and this is core to the challenge in revisioning schooling in an AI saturated world. More life skills into the curriculum means less time arming students with essential educational skills that provide foundational understanding. This is all the more critical in the cognitive warfare we are battling. Not everyone can or should pursue higher education, but, learning of history, geography, geopolitics and classic literature impacts cultural understanding, and the value of morality in the future. It also provides knowledge of what is means to be a human. Good teachers do this well. Great teachers can change lives.
I’d be most interested in learning your students' responses to you sharing Littell’s article, and if, perhaps, one of them has ever revised it to reflect their version.