Wednesday, January 19, 2011

living the dream

The boys and I watched Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I have a dream" speech this week.  We pulled out a youtube video during time we cheerfully refer to as, "Runamuck Elementary School."  Purposefully misspelled, "Runamuck" is our description of the day-to-day family life where we are learning and experiencing things that stretch, instruct, and enrich our lives.  It's a nice combination of activities, adventures, friends, family, and often, mess.  


Sometimes, people will refer to this "Runamuck" concept as homeschooling, but I think that term should probably be reserved for the families who take on the responsibility of teaching their children seriously and intentionally, with plans, curriculum, and vision of a specific form of education.  In our case, "Runamuck Elementary" is just part of parenting (and living) in the Kenobi household.


Lately, however, I've spent a lot of time thinking, reading, and considering what really makes one well-educated.  I ran across some of Dr. King's thoughts on the subject, which seemed as timely today as in 1947, when he evidently spoke these words:
"Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. 
At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths.

To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.  The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.
...We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education."

Well said, MLK.  Well said.

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