Thought For Today
“…our lives, after we are gone, survive only in the memories of others, and those memories butt up against the walls we erect and the roles we play.”
Roger Ebert
(His May 24, 1998 review of CITZEN KANE)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
What My Grandchildren Should Know
Draft December 2008
What do I want my children, grandchildren and their students to know?
Your inheritance is free, unrestricted, knowledge, which is available to doubt, inquiry, testing and review. Your skills must include the ability to read critically, write clearly, and use mathematics. You have these gifts because of the insight and often-great sacrifice of those who preceded us. Your Holy Obligation is to make certain that the Gift is continued to those who follow you. We are privileged to “stand on the shoulders of giants”. This was recognized early. An early record:
“Who sees further a dwarf or a giant? Surely a giant for his eyes are situated at a higher level than those of the dwarf. But if the dwarf is placed on the shoulders of the giant who sees further?”
“…So too we are dwarfs astride the shoulders of giants. We master their wisdom and move beyond it. Due their wisdom we grow wise and are able to say all that we say, but not because we are greater than they”
Isaiah di Trani c. 1180 – c. 1250
Therefore you must master and teach:
Recorded History and The Skills required to interpret its message. Among these legacies are:
The history of our values and those of other cultures. This requires knowledge of organized religions of those who challenge them.
The history of science and the essential nature of objective observations, evaluation, confirmation and publication are often neglected or severely challenged. Your must know the vital importance of this knowledge and these skills to our current society and its power to sustain our life’s values.
Values are essential to our well being and your inheritance.
Information is the birthright of every person of each generation. Information must be review able, questioned, as open, accurate and decipherable as possible. Each child has a right to be given the tools of independent learning and verification, I.e.: the ability to read, write and count in at least his parents language and the language of a major foreign culture.
Much of the American population, in, at least, my lifetime, has been “DUMBED-DOWN” on all general knowledge. Some believe it is due general neglect of public education. However, I believe that there is an active severe challenge to science in particular. This has been the defensive position of the clergy from the time of Copernicus and Galileo. Much of this resistance has abated in the face of overwhelming evidence. However, there remains a strong element of society, which is, apparently, threatened by the scientific community.
Refer to Olivia Johnson, NY Times, Dec. 2008
Science has been the dominant force – for good and ill – that has transformed human lives over the past two centuries (and longer).
Science is an attitude… measuring, evaluating and describing the world that is based on un-prejudiced investigation and objective evidence. The hallmark is curiosity to see the world as it is.
The beauty of the scientific approach is that even when individuals do succumb to bias or partiality, others can correct them using a framework of evidence that everyone broadly agrees on.
“When data can’t be accessed or trusted, when ‘facts’ are actually illusions – well, this threatens the nature of knowledge itself. And a society without knowledge is steering blind.”
What do I want my children, grandchildren and their students to know?
Your inheritance is free, unrestricted, knowledge, which is available to doubt, inquiry, testing and review. Your skills must include the ability to read critically, write clearly, and use mathematics. You have these gifts because of the insight and often-great sacrifice of those who preceded us. Your Holy Obligation is to make certain that the Gift is continued to those who follow you. We are privileged to “stand on the shoulders of giants”. This was recognized early. An early record:
“Who sees further a dwarf or a giant? Surely a giant for his eyes are situated at a higher level than those of the dwarf. But if the dwarf is placed on the shoulders of the giant who sees further?”
“…So too we are dwarfs astride the shoulders of giants. We master their wisdom and move beyond it. Due their wisdom we grow wise and are able to say all that we say, but not because we are greater than they”
Isaiah di Trani c. 1180 – c. 1250
Therefore you must master and teach:
Recorded History and The Skills required to interpret its message. Among these legacies are:
The history of our values and those of other cultures. This requires knowledge of organized religions of those who challenge them.
The history of science and the essential nature of objective observations, evaluation, confirmation and publication are often neglected or severely challenged. Your must know the vital importance of this knowledge and these skills to our current society and its power to sustain our life’s values.
Values are essential to our well being and your inheritance.
Information is the birthright of every person of each generation. Information must be review able, questioned, as open, accurate and decipherable as possible. Each child has a right to be given the tools of independent learning and verification, I.e.: the ability to read, write and count in at least his parents language and the language of a major foreign culture.
Much of the American population, in, at least, my lifetime, has been “DUMBED-DOWN” on all general knowledge. Some believe it is due general neglect of public education. However, I believe that there is an active severe challenge to science in particular. This has been the defensive position of the clergy from the time of Copernicus and Galileo. Much of this resistance has abated in the face of overwhelming evidence. However, there remains a strong element of society, which is, apparently, threatened by the scientific community.
Refer to Olivia Johnson, NY Times, Dec. 2008
Science has been the dominant force – for good and ill – that has transformed human lives over the past two centuries (and longer).
Science is an attitude… measuring, evaluating and describing the world that is based on un-prejudiced investigation and objective evidence. The hallmark is curiosity to see the world as it is.
The beauty of the scientific approach is that even when individuals do succumb to bias or partiality, others can correct them using a framework of evidence that everyone broadly agrees on.
“When data can’t be accessed or trusted, when ‘facts’ are actually illusions – well, this threatens the nature of knowledge itself. And a society without knowledge is steering blind.”
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