Note that thinking in metaphor naturally includes literal thinking, but not vice versa. As a society understands metaphor, it understands politics. This is a truism worth chiseling into marble. When the upper class understands metaphor while the masses require literality, freedom declines.
Our modern educational system has taught most of us to focus on the literal, to separate the fields of knowledge, to learn topics as if they are fundamentally detached from each other, and to build areas of expertise and career around disconnected specialties. We are [...]
Teaching the kids a thing and then telling them to use it was less effective than just letting them watch an adult do it—and then being left to act as they choose.
Allan Bloom wrote in The Closing of the American Mind: “People sup together, play together, travel together, but they do not think together. Hardly any homes have any intellectual life whatsoever, let alone one that informs the vital interests of life. Educational TV marks the [...]
The secret of any great education is love of learning. Note that the phrase here is love of “learning,” not love of “schooling,” or love of “education.” Learning should be the focus of schools and education, but this is not always the case. Many schools [...]
America is in the midst of a major clash of two cultures. Most of the rich world, and the developing world as well, are experiencing the same challenge. This contest is seldom cooperative, often violent, and increasingly heated. It has the passion of the age-old [...]
There is a widespread myth that feminism came about in the 20th Century, that—along with Civil Rights and Environmentalism—feminism is one of our great modern advances. The truth is that feminism has a much earlier origin. In the Beginning... Adam and Eve left the Garden [...]
Returning again to the discussion I had with a friend who runs a book discussion group. We agreed that we had both learned a great deal because of the courage of one woman to not walk in lock-step with the others in the group and [...]
I had an epiphany yesterday about woodstoves and warmth--if a little bit more metaphysical than the reading on the thermostat. I was pondering about the struggle I've had of late getting off my personal conveyor belt. Not with TJEd, you'll be glad to know; but I've been in a personal rut and have wondered in vain for several weeks how to break free from my habits.
