Latest / The Grammar of Classical Education / Week 141: Men Without Chests: What are we really teaching? | The Abolition of Man #2

Transcript

Week 141: Men Without Chests: What are we really teaching? | The Abolition of Man #2 · The Grammar of Classical Education

0:03
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Grammar of Classical Education,
0:07
SPEAKER_00: a podcast that examines the philosophical foundations of classical education,
0:15
SPEAKER_00: and then seeks to help classically minded educators bring those ideas to life
0:23
SPEAKER_00: in their classroom, co-op, or homeschool settings.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Dr. Darlene Gomes, from Leading to Wonder, and I am so glad you've joined us today.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, or to those of you who are new, welcome.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: This is the first official episode in The Abolition of Man by C.S.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Last week, I challenged you to read or listen to just the first chapter.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: I really hope you did that.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: As we discussed in our Substack essay,
1:05
SPEAKER_00: even as teachers, we need to be continually learning.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that means wrestling with the hard stuff.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: And I certainly would consider the abolition of man clearly in that category.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: As I was preparing for this week's episode,
1:28
SPEAKER_00: I spent some time not just reading the book,
1:31
SPEAKER_00: but reading a variety of resources about the book.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you honestly,
1:38
SPEAKER_00: the more I learn about it,
1:41
SPEAKER_00: The more crucial I feel it is that we as educators take the time to glean from
1:49
SPEAKER_00: the wisdom of C.S.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: You see,
1:54
SPEAKER_00: if the concerns that Lewis presented were valid in his day,
1:59
SPEAKER_00: which they were, they are even more so in ours.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: As Lewis pointed out, all elements of our education are teaching something.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: And our goal should be the restoration of man, not the abolition of man.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: The restoration of the whole man,
2:27
SPEAKER_00: one whose heart and head and appetite or belly are rightly aligned.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: And that is basically where we will be starting today with chapter one, Men Without Chests.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Actually, before we officially start, I am not planning to fly through this book.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: We will be at least two weeks in each chapter,
2:57
SPEAKER_00: but I'm not always going to take a lot of time to explain things.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: This is really for two reasons.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: One,
3:05
SPEAKER_00: it will allow us to move through the chapter at a decent pace while still being able
3:12
SPEAKER_00: to look outside of just Lewis's words.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: And number two, I'm kind of hoping that it will encourage you to get into the book yourself.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: When you invest the time to listen to it or even just read a page or two,
3:32
SPEAKER_00: You will find that you are wrestling through a very important commentary
3:40
SPEAKER_00: on why we teach the way we do and how
3:44
SPEAKER_00: the current educational system is truly creating men without chests.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Even before he begins the chapter,
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Lewis starts with a rather odd quote from a medieval carol entitled,
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Unto Us Is Born a Son.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Lewis pulls two short lines.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: So he sent the word to slay and slew the little childer.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: At first I thought, well,
4:15
SPEAKER_00: that's an odd line from A Christmas Carol until I realized that it was taken from
4:21
SPEAKER_00: the following full verse.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: It says, quote, This did Herod sore afraid and did him bewilder.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: So he gave the word to slay and slew the little children.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: End quote.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Herod was so afraid of what this birth of a baby who would become king would mean
4:50
SPEAKER_00: for him, that he just killed all the baby boys under three.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Now think of it for a moment.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Why could Lewis possibly have chosen that as an opening to this book?
5:08
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's another thing I'll be doing in this series.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I'll be asking you questions and actually pausing for you to answer.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Not that long of a pause, but long enough for you to just think a bit.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: So again, what do you think was Lewis's purpose in using that particular quote?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that he was comparing Herod to someone?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: What about the Childer?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: It's really kind of telling when you consider the topic of the entire book, isn't it?
5:50
SPEAKER_00: In this book,
5:51
SPEAKER_00: especially at the beginning,
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Lewis talks pretty extensively about the Green Book by Gaius and Titius,
6:00
SPEAKER_00: especially focusing on the story of Coolridge and the Waterfall.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Is it pretty or is it sublime?
6:08
SPEAKER_00: It is the response of Gaius and Tidius that becomes the launching pad
6:14
SPEAKER_00: for Lewis's critique of the current educational system.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: Before we jump fully into his ideas,
6:22
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to ask you to consider a more pressing, practical question.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe That textbooks solely teach facts,
6:37
SPEAKER_00: or do you believe that they also communicate philosophical beliefs?
6:44
SPEAKER_00: What about regular books?
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Books read for pleasure?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Are there really any difference between the two types of books?
6:58
SPEAKER_00: How about the television shows we watch, or
7:03
SPEAKER_00: I know, it may seem a bit off of Lewis's aim,
7:09
SPEAKER_00: but I think it's important for us to recognize that everything,
7:15
SPEAKER_00: and I do mean everything,
7:18
SPEAKER_00: that our students take in and,
7:20
SPEAKER_00: well, everything we take in, is communicating a philosophical bent.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: I realize that when it comes to textbooks and classrooms,
7:32
SPEAKER_00: we may not have much say in them, but that doesn't mean we assume that all is well.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Being aware of the philosophical ideas that are being presented,
7:46
SPEAKER_00: both big and small, allows us to address them with wisdom.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Here's a slight non-academic example.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever watched a television show or a movie and specifically noticed
8:02
SPEAKER_00: when there were words that were used that you would never say in your home
8:08
SPEAKER_00: or ideas presented as completely normal that you don't agree with?
8:14
SPEAKER_00: You see,
8:15
SPEAKER_00: there is a difference between passively taking in information for knowledge
8:22
SPEAKER_00: or even simply entertainment and actively monitoring.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: Processing that information,
8:30
SPEAKER_00: a skill we really need to work on,
8:34
SPEAKER_00: and a skill we need to teach our children in an age-appropriate manner.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at one non-textbook example.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: I remember as a child in the early 70s...
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Goodness, I feel like that should have been prefaced with the year of our Lord.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, there was a book I checked out from the library called The Secret Kitten by Anne Millett.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: I loved the illustrations and really felt the story.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: A kitten needed to be rescued.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Mom said no.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: Kids hid the kitten in the closet.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Mom ends up saying, okay, I guess we can keep him.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: I distinctly remember as a very young child reading that with my mom.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: And then we chatted for a bit,
9:36
SPEAKER_00: looking at the pretty pictures, talking about how much I like kittens.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And then she slipped in the question, do you think they did the right thing?
9:49
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they saved the kitten, but they disobeyed their mom.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Talk about a philosophical conundrum for a six-year-old.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: My mom didn't give me the answer, but she led me to one.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: And to this day, many, many moons later, I remember that discussion.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: I wrote a paper on the book and the discussion as a college student,
10:21
SPEAKER_00: and I'm referencing it here.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: You see, some things really, really stick.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, back to Lewis, because he makes the same point.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: The Green Book casually says that feelings really are subjective
10:40
SPEAKER_00: and therefore aren't worth much.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: And that's about the end of the discussion in the Green Book.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, nothing was really taught that was bad, was it?
10:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, other than be sure you're using words that mean what you want them to.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: And that is where Lewis would beg to differ.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he places that as the cornerstone example of the problem.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Either authors maybe don't realize what they're inadvertently teaching,
11:22
SPEAKER_00: or they are intentionally teaching what they are.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: If you're like me,
11:29
SPEAKER_00: you may have immediately thought,
11:31
SPEAKER_00: whoa, he's kind of making a mountain out of a molehill, isn't he?
11:36
SPEAKER_00: It's just a grammar school English book.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Is it really that big of a deal?
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, Lewis clarifies with this statement, quote,
11:48
SPEAKER_00: The very power of Gaius and Titus depends on the fact that they are dealing with
11:54
SPEAKER_00: a boy.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: A boy who thinks he's doing his English prep and has no notion of ethics,
12:01
SPEAKER_00: theology, and politics are all at stake.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: It's not a theory he put into his mind.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: But an assumption,
12:12
SPEAKER_00: which 10 years hence,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: its original forgotten and its presence unconscious,
12:19
SPEAKER_00: will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized
12:26
SPEAKER_00: as a controversy at all.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: The authors themselves,
12:30
SPEAKER_00: I suspect,
12:31
SPEAKER_00: hardly know what they are doing to the boy,
12:35
SPEAKER_00: and he cannot know what is being done to him.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: So, you see,
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Lewis goes on to explain,
12:48
SPEAKER_00: rather than giving the students well-constructed statements of value throughout
12:53
SPEAKER_00: the Green Book,
12:54
SPEAKER_00: they are basically saying that the student should distrust any sentiment
13:00
SPEAKER_00: that can't be reduced to a provable fact,
13:03
SPEAKER_00: that mere emotions have no objective value.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Again, we may be tempted to consider his statements overreaching.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: But when you consider that they,
13:17
SPEAKER_00: in a sense,
13:18
SPEAKER_00: are building up young people who see emotions as weak when compared to
13:25
SPEAKER_00: the obvious superiority of reason.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: So as we wrap up this first half of chapter 1,
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Lewis gives a rather familiar quote,
13:38
SPEAKER_00: one that we probably all have heard because of who said it and we would tend
13:45
SPEAKER_00: to agree.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said, quote,
13:48
SPEAKER_00: the task of a modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: If you've read the chapter,
13:59
SPEAKER_00: You might have an idea of what exactly Lewis intended by this quote
14:04
SPEAKER_00: if you didn't take a moment and consider his purpose.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Before beginning this book,
14:21
SPEAKER_00: I would have said it meant that we were to bring refreshment to the souls
14:25
SPEAKER_00: of our students, not just tear things down.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not really what he meant.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the context of the abolition of man, not really close at all.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: You see,
14:37
SPEAKER_00: Gaius and Tideuses of the world view students as overly sentimental,
14:44
SPEAKER_00: full of unproductive emotion.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: The best way to correct that is to remove the emotional component altogether.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, on the other hand,
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Says that from his experience,
14:59
SPEAKER_00: students aren't suffering from a, quote,
15:02
SPEAKER_00: weak excess of sensibility,
15:04
SPEAKER_00: end quote,
15:06
SPEAKER_00: but rather they need to be,
15:09
SPEAKER_00: quote, awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity, end quote.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: I do need to make a slight interjection here.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: There is a rather important matter of the 1940s definition of terms
15:25
SPEAKER_00: that is quite different from our view of today.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: When Lewis says that far fewer students have a weak excess of sensibility,
15:35
SPEAKER_00: in our vernacular, we would say that few students are sensible or reasonable.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Lewis was using the older definition of the word sensible,
15:47
SPEAKER_00: which used to mean more of an emotional consciousness based on the input of
15:53
SPEAKER_00: the senses.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And that's the original etymology of the word.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: So Lewis is saying far fewer students are emotionally conscious than are in
16:03
SPEAKER_00: a slumber of cold vulgarity.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: They have become unmoved by what is truly good and beautiful, dry and desert-like.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: And sadly, that is where many of our students still sit today.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay, maybe not our littlest learners.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Everything there is fun and new.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: We can really see that desert-like dryness as our students grow older.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: But friends...
16:35
SPEAKER_00: We have to be aware of the fact that the desert is creeping down into our younger students.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: In the age of technology and quick hits of dopamine reels and likes,
16:50
SPEAKER_00: it is drying up the ability of their hearts to delight in the true,
16:57
SPEAKER_00: the good, and the beautiful.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: And unawares, while we are teaching facts, A desert is overtaking their hearts.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: According to Lewis, students are being formed.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: The head of the students,
17:17
SPEAKER_00: their intellect is important, and it must be filled with truth, but not alone.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: The belly or the appetites of the students must be guided well,
17:28
SPEAKER_00: and that is done through the heart or the chest.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: As Plato describes it,
17:33
SPEAKER_00: the head rules the belly through the chest,
17:39
SPEAKER_00: which later led Augustine to address the importance of Ordo Amoris,
17:45
SPEAKER_00: the proper ordering of loves.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Classroom teachers, homeschool parents, anyone who interacts with students on any level.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: What are you allowing or allowing?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Even encouraging to guide the very hearts of your students or of your children.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: When we begin to see the left untended,
18:18
SPEAKER_00: left to the green books by the Gaiuses and Tediuses of today,
18:25
SPEAKER_00: the next generation will indeed be.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Be men without chests.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, my fellow educators,
18:36
SPEAKER_00: next week we will be finishing up chapter 1,
18:40
SPEAKER_00: and I encourage you to either finish reading the chapter or try listening to it
18:47
SPEAKER_00: through just one more time.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: You'll be amazed at how much more you pick up on the second go-round.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Remember,
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Doing hard things and stretching ourselves is exactly what we ask our students to do
19:04
SPEAKER_00: on a daily basis.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: So a little stretching of our mental muscles can't be that bad of an idea.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me on this challenging adventure.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll be looking forward to finishing up Chapter 1 of The Abolition of Man with you next week.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: I trust that whatever your teaching situation,
19:37
SPEAKER_00: whether it's in a classroom or co-op or homeschooling,
19:41
SPEAKER_00: That you have found these ideas not only encouraging but challenging as well.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: You can listen to all of the episodes of The Grammar of Classical Education
19:55
SPEAKER_00: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.com.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: I also have available a weekly teacher's newsletter that includes some teacher tips
20:05
SPEAKER_00: and freebies.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: You can sign up for that at the Leading to Wonder newsletter found at darlenegomes.substack.com.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: To learn more about me and Leading to Wonder, please visit the website leading2wonder.com.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: No spaces.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or if you're interested
20:33
SPEAKER_00: the virtual or in-person workshops that I offer for schools,
20:38
SPEAKER_00: co-ops, homeschool educators, and parent groups.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is Darlene Gomes and thank you for joining us.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Until next week, remember, as E.B.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: White said, Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.