>
>Aztecs vs. Greeks
>By Charles Murray
>Posted: Thursday, January 18, 2007
>
>ARTICLES
>Wall Street Journal <http://www.wsj.com>
>Publication Date: January 18, 2007
>
>If "intellectually gifted" is defined to mean people who can become
>theoretical physicists, then we're talking about no more than a few people
>per thousand and perhaps many fewer.
>
Wrong. Take for example that guy who taught calculus to a class of
ghetto kids in an L.A. barrio and got most of them to pass the AP
Calculus test with flying colors. Becoming a theoretical physicist is
not about brainpower but about having the burning desire and interest in
thinking about certain things. The only reason he uses "theoretical
physics" is because it sounds grand and impossibly abstract.
>The encouragement of wisdom requires being steeped in the study of ethics,
>starting with Aristotle and Confucius. It is not enough that gifted children
>learn to be nice. They must know what it means to be good.
>
Yeah, for sure. Let's start with the Greeks who saw nothing unethical
about slavery and the oppression of women.
>The encouragement of wisdom requires an advanced knowledge of history. Never
>has the aphorism about the fate of those who ignore history been more true.
>
Oh, we haven't reached the end of history? My bad.
>All of the above are antithetical to the mindset that prevails in today's
>schools at every level. The gifted should not be taught to be nonjudgmental;
>they need to learn how to make accurate judgments.
>
That is, judgements that ape the ones of their teachers.
>They should not be taught
>to be equally respectful of Aztecs and Greeks; they should focus on the best
>that has come before them, which will mean a light dose of Aztecs and a
>heavy one of Greeks.
>
Translation: no black studies, no chicano studies, no feminism.
>The primary purpose of their education should not be to
>let the little darlings express themselves, but to give them the tools and
>the intellectual discipline for expressing themselves as adults.
>
That is, they should ape the great writings of adults and simulate adult
narrowness no matter how young they are or how incomprehensible an adult
perspective is to them.
>In short, I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a
>liberal education, serving its classic purpose: to prepare an elite to do
>its duty.
>
"The Soviet state will not, it is true, banish the poet like Plato, but
it will -- and this is why I recalled the Platonic state at the outset
-- assign him tasks which do not permit him to display in new
masterpieces the long-since counterfeit wealth of creative personality.
To expect a renewal in terms of such personalities and such works is a
privilege of fascism,...." (Benjamin)
>But we have that option only in the choice of
>our elected officials. In all other respects, the government, economy and
>culture are run by a cognitive elite that we do not choose. That is the
>reality, and we are powerless to change it.
>
Remember that!!!
>All we can do is try to educate
>the elite to be conscious of, and prepared to meet, its obligations. For
>years, we have not even thought about the nature of that task. It is time we
>did.
>
The elite, being themselves the children of the elite. And we need to
teach them how the highest task of mankind is to hang on to what they've
got and not share with lesser beings.
Joanna