Latest / The Grammar of Classical Education / Week 144: Men Without Chests: The Head Knows / The Heart Loves | The Abolition of Man #4

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Week 144: Men Without Chests: The Head Knows / The Heart Loves | The Abolition of Man #4 · The Grammar of Classical Education

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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Grammar of Classical Education,
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  SPEAKER_00: a podcast that examines the philosophical foundations of classical education and
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  SPEAKER_00: then seeks to help classically minded educators bring those ideas to life
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  SPEAKER_00: in their classroom, co-op, or homeschool settings.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
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  SPEAKER_00: Dr. Darlene Gomes, from Leading to Wonder, and I am so glad you've joined us today.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, or welcome if you're joining us for the first time.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: We are continuing our look at The Abolition of Man by C.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
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  SPEAKER_00: We are still in the first section or first chapter of this book,
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  SPEAKER_00: which was a three-part lecture given by Lewis in 1943 at the University of Durham
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  SPEAKER_00: at what has been called a high-level academic conference.
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  SPEAKER_00: And considering that this is the fourth episode and we are just getting ready
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  SPEAKER_00: to finish chapter one, there are two things that can be assumed.
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  SPEAKER_00: One, we are not moving with great speed through this book.
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  SPEAKER_00: And number two, there must be a reason.
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  SPEAKER_00: The first assumption is 100% correct, as is the second.
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  SPEAKER_00: The reason is because the book itself is not a quick and easy read.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is, however, incredibly timely.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is written very much as we can only assume C.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lewis thought and taught.
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  SPEAKER_00: And maybe one of the biggest reasons we're taking a slow stroll or maybe
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  SPEAKER_00: a better description would be a slow slog through this book is because
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  SPEAKER_00: while it was first presented in 1943,
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  SPEAKER_00: it is unbelievably applicable to our teaching today.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not just how we teach, but what we teach, and even more why we teach the way we do.
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  SPEAKER_00: If Lewis had concerns about the educational trajectory as he saw it,
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  SPEAKER_00: it stands to reason that we,
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  SPEAKER_00: from our position 70-plus years later,
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  SPEAKER_00: Are able to see the continued trajectory adjusted for modern philosophies.
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  SPEAKER_00: We have talked in detail about the importance of recognizing that everything teaches something.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that is a pretty overarching statement.
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  SPEAKER_00: But think about the specifics of that in our everyday life.
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  SPEAKER_00: While Lewis was addressing textbooks like the Green Book by Gaius and Titius, yes,
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  SPEAKER_00: textbooks teach not just facts, but philosophy, sometimes quite inconspicuously.
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  SPEAKER_00: But we've also considered the fact that the books
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  SPEAKER_00: that young people read teach them ideas and philosophical bents.
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  SPEAKER_00: Things like television, computers, iPhones, and iPads are right up there too.
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  SPEAKER_00: We mentioned that being mindful of what we are inadvertently allowing
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  SPEAKER_00: to teach our students is crucial.
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  SPEAKER_00: Last week, we also spent some time looking at how logical positivism works.
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  SPEAKER_00: A fancy term for the idea
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  SPEAKER_00: that statements can only be considered objectively valuable if they can be verified
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  SPEAKER_00: through evidence or analysis,
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  SPEAKER_00: which ends up pushing things like morality,
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  SPEAKER_00: beauty, value into the realm of just personal feelings rather than objective truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, in today's world, Objective truth isn't really objective anymore.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's very subjective.
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  SPEAKER_00: Truth has become a personal thing.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have my truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: You have your truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so long as you allow me to force my truth on you when it suits me,
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  SPEAKER_00: we can all live peacefully together.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, Lewis points out the importance of establishing not just the idea
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  SPEAKER_00: of objective truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: but in helping to train even our youngest students to love what is true, good,
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  SPEAKER_00: and beautiful, and to have a dislike or even a disdain for anything less than that.
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  SPEAKER_00: I love too how Lewis said that this kind of training,
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  SPEAKER_00: this ordering of their affections should happen, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: all this before he is of an age to reason,
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  SPEAKER_00: so that when reason at length comes to him,
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  SPEAKER_00: then bred as he has been, he will hold out his hand in welcome and
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  SPEAKER_00: As we
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  SPEAKER_00: ended last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: we considered Lewis's presentation of the Tao as a representation of the,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote, doctrine of objective value, end quote.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is not above the truth of biblical doctrine.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not the ultimate standard of truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: but it is a reminder that objective value must be found outside of man himself.
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  SPEAKER_00: And our response to the objective value or objective truth must come as a result
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  SPEAKER_00: of reason being taught what is good and what is bad.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our affections are then to be ordered.
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  SPEAKER_00: We like what we should and dislike what we shouldn't in alignment
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  SPEAKER_00: with what we have been taught with reason.
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  SPEAKER_00: When unordered affections are in place,
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  SPEAKER_00: we know what is good and what isn't, but we dislike what we should like.
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  SPEAKER_00: And
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  SPEAKER_00: Our response is either following the objective truth or not following the objective truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Lewis puts it,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote, the heart never takes the place of the head, but it can and should obey it.
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  SPEAKER_00: The problem becomes when we view facts without value,
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  SPEAKER_00: without an alignment to the truth when it could be false,
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  SPEAKER_00: or without an alignment to what is just because it could be unjust.
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  SPEAKER_00: So when we teach children to respond to thoughts or actions without a firm grasp on
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  SPEAKER_00: the objective truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: they will be unstable responses that are based simply on their feelings,
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  SPEAKER_00: where the heart takes the place of their head.
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  SPEAKER_00: When we teach children the fact of what is good and what is bad,
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  SPEAKER_00: But we fail to cultivate their affections,
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  SPEAKER_00: failing to teach them to love what is good and hate what is bad.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're actually asking the head to do what only the chest, the heart, can accomplish.
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  SPEAKER_00: Back to Lewis's quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: the heart never,
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  SPEAKER_00: or I would add, should never, the heart should never take the place of the head.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or the opposite could also be included.
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  SPEAKER_00: The head should never take the place of the heart.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it, the heart, can and should obey it, the head.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our responsibility as teachers is to help establish within our students
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  SPEAKER_00: an understanding of and an appreciation for objective truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Cultivating then the kind of person who has been trained
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  SPEAKER_00: to love what is genuinely worthy of love.
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  SPEAKER_00: And thus helping to order their loves,
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  SPEAKER_00: their appreciation and affection towards those things that are good and
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  SPEAKER_00: against those things that are bad.
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  SPEAKER_00: Reason, the head, an understanding of the objective reality of truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Affections or loves, the chest, the heart.
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  SPEAKER_00: Are properly ordered to the truth, goodness, and beauty of the objective reality.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then the desires and passions of the belly.
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  SPEAKER_00: The appetites, the things that we long for.
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  SPEAKER_00: With those ideas in mind,
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  SPEAKER_00: It does make Lewis's statement a little more understandable when he says
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  SPEAKER_00: the head rules the belly through the chest.
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  SPEAKER_00: Reason rules our passion and desires through the loves that have been ordered.
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  SPEAKER_00: The affections and affinities that one has to what is true, good, and beautiful.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it is here that Lewis goes back to the issue of Gaius and Titius in the Green Book.
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  SPEAKER_00: They seem to present themselves as intellectual,
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  SPEAKER_00: making men full of facts and information unhindered by objective truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, they are doing a fairly good job at it.
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  SPEAKER_00: But in the course of their efforts,
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  SPEAKER_00: they have completely negated the formation of the chest,
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  SPEAKER_00: the affections and passions.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Lewis describes the problem with their teaching, quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: But defect of fertile and generous emotions that marks them out.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so."
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch!
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, it would be very easy for us to say, well, good thing we aren't teaching like that.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have to ask one question.
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  SPEAKER_00: What then are you doing to build up the chest?
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  SPEAKER_00: Not at the expense of the facts and logic and reason, but in addition to those things.
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  SPEAKER_00: You see, affections and loves won't properly form themselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: Left unattended, they will be formed, but by someone or something other than the truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: And whatever forms the chest determines the passions and desires and drives that
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  SPEAKER_00: the person will follow.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Lewis finishes up this first section,
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  SPEAKER_00: the first lecture in his series,
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  SPEAKER_00: he leaves this academic gathering with such an amazingly powerful thought
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  SPEAKER_00: to consider.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today, we would call it a definite mic drop moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would serve this section an injustice if I didn't share it with you exactly
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  SPEAKER_00: in Lewis's own words.
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  SPEAKER_00: As he wraps up his presentation, he says, quote, And all the times.
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  SPEAKER_00: Such is the tragedy comedy of our situation.
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  SPEAKER_00: We continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement
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  SPEAKER_00: that our civilization needs more drive or dynamicism or self-sacrifice
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  SPEAKER_00: or creativity.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function.
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  SPEAKER_00: We make men without chest and expect of them virtue and enterprise.
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  SPEAKER_00: We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
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  SPEAKER_00: We castrate and bid the gelding be fruitful."
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  SPEAKER_00: And that,
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  SPEAKER_00: my fellow educators,
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  SPEAKER_00: Whether you stand before 20 students or two, that is what we are fighting for.
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  SPEAKER_00: The ability to build up within our students their chests,
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  SPEAKER_00: their hearts,
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  SPEAKER_00: their affections,
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  SPEAKER_00: helping to order their loves with an understanding of objective truth.
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  SPEAKER_00: And a true appreciation and passion for the true, the good, and the beautiful.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, that finally brings us to the end of his first night's presentation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, we are starting into next week his second chapter called The Way.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now again, this is going to be all up to you.
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  SPEAKER_00: I recommend that you listen to or read through chapter 2 at least once before next week.
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  SPEAKER_00: Give yourself a push and To do the hard stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not easy.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I have usually listened to them at least two or three times.
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  SPEAKER_00: I will tell you,
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  SPEAKER_00: I did find on Hoopla through my local library a Wonderful recording of The Abolition
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  SPEAKER_00: of Man, done by Douglas Gresham, who was C.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lewis's stepson.
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  SPEAKER_00: The voice is amazing,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it's really helpful if you can find a copy to read as you are listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: But folks, once again, we want our students to do the hard things today.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that means that we need to push ourselves to do the hard things right along with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: I know it may seem like a lot.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a 30-minute chapter to listen to approximately.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's about a page or two a day to read through it.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I challenge you
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  SPEAKER_00: and I encourage you It will allow this incredibly important little book to have
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  SPEAKER_00: an immense impact on your teaching today.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Be encouraged.
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  SPEAKER_00: You are already doing the hard stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: And you are supported.
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  SPEAKER_00: And my job?
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  SPEAKER_00: With this is to make it a little easier and maybe even a little enjoyable along the way.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I trust that whatever your teaching situation,
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's in a classroom or co-op or homeschooling,
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: that you have found these ideas not only encouraging, but challenging as well.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can listen to all of the episodes of the Grammar of Classical Education
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I also have available a weekly teacher's newsletter that includes some teacher tips
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: and freebies.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can sign up for that at the Leading to Wonder newsletter found at darlenegomes.substack.com.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about me and Leading to Wonder, please visit the website leading2wonder.com.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: No spaces.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to reach out if you have any questions or if you're interested in
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: the virtual or in-person workshops that I offer for schools,
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: co-ops, homeschool educators, and parent groups.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is Darlene Gomes, and thank you for joining us.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, remember, as E.B.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: White said, always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.