In C. S. Lewis’s “Democratic Education” we promptly learn that Lewis believes that the teaching public is now “teaching to the norm” or in layman’s terms leaving out the intelligent. Lewis also quotes Aristotle, “Democratic Education ought to mean, not the education which democrats like, but the education which will preserve democracy. ” (32) Lewis continues to support his claim throughout the rest of the essay. Lewis cites that the inequalities of nature as a problem in education; he also states that stressing the equality of education is causing a problem.
I agree with Lewis and believe that stressing the equality of education that is declining the quality of education as a whole. “Equality is purely a social conception. It applies to man as a political and economic animal. It has no place in the world of the mind. ” (Lewis 34) Right here Lewis is saying that equality has its own place, but that place is not the classroom. An example of this equality would be teachers trying to teach to the norm. In many cases, including the school I attend, the norm is a below average student.
The student is below average usually because he or she does not care, yet it is not because he or she lacks the intelligence. It was argued and pleaded by many that the boys of a “certain type” (32) (boys that probably wanted to learn more than their peers) had an advantage compared to the rest of their fellow classmates. So the obvious step is to make everything equal and “dumb it down” for everyone who is not of the Lewis’s “certain type” (32). Lewis later says that “We must also abolish all compulsory subjects; and we must make a curriculum so wide that every boy will get a chance at something'” (33).
The sarcastic tone in Lewis’s voice is very obvious. He believed it was set up to where anyone, regardless of his or her desire to learn, could be “praised and petted for something” thus leading to a false self-confidence in the student, and then creating a situation where “No boy, and no boy’s parents feel inferior” (33). There are multiple scenarios where equality is necessary: voting, the work field, and the human heart just to name a few. One place equality is futile is in the human mind. Are setting up of equality in the classroom is setting up failure out of the room.
Lewis also believed in the lethal consequence of education in the classroom, “In the second place, you are trying to introduce equality where equality is fatal” (34. ) Many fans of this method of education believe that it will give the student more confidence and help him or her succeed in the future world. This method of education is one that is one that will exude a pseudo-confidence in the student and his or her parents.
This will lead to this new found “confidence” plummeting after the student encounters a teacher who is not so fond of educating “democratically”. This kind of ‘democratic’ education that is already looming ahead is bad because it endeavors to propitiate evil passions, to appease envy” (34). Lewis believed that this was a terrible idea because you can’t tone down envy or jealousy at all. “No attitude of humanity which you can possibly adopt will propitiate a man with an inferiority complex” (34). I have to agree with Lewis here, in that until the end of time making things equal is ever going to satisfy someone who feels so diminutive and unimportant that he needs to prove he is better than everyone else.
This leads you to believe that teachers are better off spending their time talking to the door which leads to their classroom. The teacher’s classroom is viewed by some as a portal to higher learning by some, or viewed as a prison by others. Yielding part of the problem, but yet we have yet to realize it. We are spending our time lowering our level of expectation for people who don’t want to anything expected of them. This is touched on by Lewis briefly in the essay, but I believe he did not express enough on this matter I believe this is an issue one could write a whole essay on.
The mass apathy going through schools in the current day and age is enough to make one go mad. Especially if the one is one of the few who are striving for a greater education. The lack of desire for a greater education could be called many things, in my opinion it could be called a plague. Without a solid base of education and knowledge one will be nothing more than a microcosm of society The lack of desire for a greater education could be called many things, but to me it could be called a plague.
Without a solid base of education and knowledge one will be nothing more than a microcosm to his peers, and cease to succeed and exist to the surrounding world. So as we live in a day and age where everyone wants to be beautiful, renowned, rich, and famous the value of an education should be increasing. Albeit the exact opposite is happening, and you have more and more students are dropping out of high school and college classes are being forced to teach remedial courses so students are not light years behind their peers.
Where in years past students went into college being fluent in more than one language and able to do basic arithmetic at beck and call. Lewis believed that the democracy of education was ruining the education of our democrats. But I will raise him one, democratic education is not only bringing down our leaders but which the country they are striving to lead. The lack of desire for a greater education could be called many things, but to me it could be called a plague.
Without a solid base of education and knowledge one will be nothing more than a microcosm to his peers, and cease to succeed and exist to the surrounding world. So as we live in a day and age where everyone wants to be beautiful, renowned, rich, and famous the value of an education should be increasing. Albeit the exact opposite is happening, and you have more and more students are dropping out of high school and college classes are being forced to teach remedial courses so students are not light years behind their peers.
Where in years past students went into college being fluent in more than one language and able to do basic arithmetic at beck and call. Lewis believed that the democracy of education was ruining the education of our democrats. But I will raise him one, democratic education is not only bringing down our leaders but which the country they are striving to lead. The lack of desire for a greater education could be called many things, but to me it could be called a plague.
Without a solid base of education and knowledge one will be nothing more than a microcosm to his peers, and cease to succeed and exist to the surrounding world. So as we live in a day and age where everyone wants to be beautiful, renowned, rich, and famous the value of an education should be increasing. Albeit the exact opposite is happening, and you have more and more students are dropping out of high school and college classes are being forced to teach remedial courses so students are not light years behind their peers.
Where in years past students went into college being fluent in more than one language and able to do basic arithmetic at beck and call. Lewis believed that the democracy of education was ruining the education of our democrats. But I will raise him one, democratic education is not only bringing down our leaders but which the country they are striving to lead. To his peers, and cease to succeed and exist to the surrounding world. So as we live in a day and age where everyone wants to be beautiful, renowned, rich, and famous the value of an education should be increasing.
Albeit the exact opposite is happening, and you have more and more students are dropping out of high school and college classes are being forced to teach remedial courses so students are not light years behind their peers. Students once went into a higher education being fluent in more than one language and able to do basic arithmetic at beck and call in previous years. Lewis believed that the democracy of education was ruining the education of our democrats. But I will raise him one, democratic education is not only bringing down our leaders, but which the country they are striving to lead.
