Saturday, October 19, 2019

Wendell Berry about Education

Read the whole essay by Wendell Berry:

THE JOY OF SALES RESISTANCE

I. Educated people are more valuable than other people because education is a value-adding industry.

II. Educated people are better than other people because education improves people and makes them good.

III. The purpose of education is to make people able to earn more and more money.

IV. The place where education is to be used is called "your career."

V. Anything that cannot be weighed, measured, or counted does not exist.

VI. The so-called humanities probably do not exist. But if they do, they are useless. But whether they exist or not or are useful or not, they can sometimes be made to support a career.

VII Literacy does not involve knowing the meanings of words, or learning grammar, or reading books.

VIII The sign of exceptionally smart people is that they speak a language that is intelligible only to other people in their "field" or only to themselves. This is very impressive and is known as "professionalism."

IX. The smartest and most educated people are the scientists, for they have already found solutions to all our problems and will soon find solutions to all the problems resulting from their solutions to all the problems we used to have.

X. The mark of a good teacher is that he or she spends most of his or her time doing research and writes many books and articles.

XI The mark of a good researcher is the same as that of a good teacher.

XII. A great university has many computers, a lot of government and corporation research contracts, a winning team, and more administrators than teachers.

XIII. Computers make people even better and smarter than they were made by previous thingamabobs. Or if some people prove incorrigibly wicked or stupid or both, computers will at least speed them up.

XIV. The main thing is, don't let education get in the way of being nice to children. Children are our Future. Spend plenty of money on them but don't stay home with them and get in their way. Don't give them work to do; they are smart and can think up things to do on their own. Don't teach them any of that awful, stultifying, repressive, old-fashioned morality. Provide plenty of TV, microwave dinners, day care, computers, computer games, cars. For all this, they will love and respect us and be glad to grow up and pay our debts.

XV. A good school is a big school.

XVI. Disarm the children before you let them in.

Gjøvik High School.

-Wikimedia.

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Norges fremste rurale filosof er utvilsomt Sigmund Kvaløy Sætreng, men når man kommer til Wendell Berry, da blåser han selv Sætreng av banen. I USA har Berry blitt et nasjonalikon, hvor han er anerkjent som ikke bare landets fremste rurale filosof, men som en av deres største filosofer overhodet.

Wendell Berry har sitt eget, lille elvebruk, etter amerikansk målestokk, ved Kentucky-floden, og for egen del kunne jeg ikke oppnådd noe høyere i livet enn å være en liten Wendell Berry i den lille enga vår, ved den lille kulturelva vår. Men det skulle jeg ikke få lov til, og enga mi, troen min og kulturelva mi er nå fullstendig vanæret.

Videre ble jeg fordrevet fra min industri-elvetradisjon, ja, jeg benytter ordet tradisjon, da de utdannede benytter begrepet "en vanlig jobb", men det var det ikke, det var en lang og ærefull industri-elvetradisjon de kuttet røttene til, og tradisjoner skal man ta på største alvor. Jeg gav alt, absolutt alt, for vår industri-elvetradisjon etter Lenaelva med sideelver, men da jeg ble utkastet var det ingen som brøy seg, annet enn da jeg påpekte at dette ikke var rett, hvoretter de kastet seg over meg. Ingen stolthet skulle jeg ha tilbake, de tok fra meg min industri-elvehistorie, de har rasert elvebruket mitt, hvor jeg skulle levd lik en liten Wendell Berry i ord og gjerning, og de ville heller ikke at jeg skulle være stolt far. Nei, den moderne inkvisisjonen truet de med, fordi jeg deler verdisettet til Wendell Berry, som ingen av dem har lest, da Berry for dem selvsagt er verdens største hatist, og ikke vår viktigste rurale filosof.

Det eneste fellesskapet jeg har tilbake i dag, er Wikimedia-fellesskapet, hvor man verdsetter mine fotografier, hvor man katalogiserer dem og benytter dem i Wikipedia-artikler på en rekke språk. Neste gang du leser en Wikipedia-artikkel, gi en liten donasjon, hvis du setter pris på PermaLivs arbeide.

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