the problem of the book

Robert Keable Row wrote the Educational Meaning of Manual Arts and Industry, in 1909. In it he states:

Not withstanding all that has been spoken and written regarding education, it seems probable that the great majority of persons fail utterly to comprehend the meaning of the educative process. The most common misapprehension is the confusion of schooling, scholarship, an acquaintance with books, with eduction. Of one person it is said, "His parents gave him an excellent education, but he has never amounted to anything. He has failed in everything he has undertaken." Another man who has proved himself unusually efficient in a calling requiring ability, sound judgement, and skill is spoken of as "uneducated.

The fact is, the first man was not educated; he was merely schooled. Possibly nature gave him little that could be educated, or the years spent over books may unfitted him for the kind of work he might have done with success, if his schooling had been along different lines. The second man was merely "unschooled," unscholarly. But he must have had experiences, process of training, that developed his power to do the things in which he had succeeded. Ultimately this must be the test of education, the judgement to determine what is worth doing, and the ability to do that thing well.

This is an interesting quote as it points to the schools job of setting lives in motion. A common question is modern education is "what things are worth knowing," whereas, Row asks, "what things are worth doing." His assumption is that children are to be set on an active path that adds to their ability to contribute certain things of value to family, and community...

We had two days of amazing public hearing in Eureka Springs. Hopefully, these hearings which should have taken place before the project was planned through our community, will be the beginning of the end of the proposal. SWEPCO should, if they were listening to the folks most impacted by their plan, immediately withdraw their proposal from consideration by the Arkansas Public Service Commission. Hopefully the administrative law judge will agree.

Yesterday the attorney for SWEPCO tried to explain to one of our Save the Ozarks volunteers that he was lacking in the ability to fully comprehend their project. If someone can't explain a project in simple terms so that those who are most affected by it can understand, which one is really dumb?

Make, fix and create...