August 19, 2019 Monday
Bedtime Story
Liberating Education from the Hands of Clergymen
Clergymen as you would understand are very
powerful men in any society affiliated to the state religions; two such well
known examples of such power-wielding clergymen who almost represent the state are
the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran and Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Western nations have their bishops and
pastors, Israel has its rabbis and Hindus have their Babas and Godmen; whatever
their names maybe such clergymen exist and flourish in every known society.
These men though officially are meant to be
confined to their religious activities actually cast their long shadows in all
matter of the state including politics and education.
They even dictate the curriculum, the books
along with their contents to be used in schools.
Such was the situation in the United States
of the nineteenth century where the colleges were largely under the control of
the clergy men which is hard to believe today but that is how it used to be.
The courses taught in these colleges often
had strictly limited subjects ordained by the clergy that we now call classics
such as literature, religion, philosophy, and arts.
Very few colleges then offered any course
in sciences, higher mathematics, politics, economy, or even history.
Graduate programs and colleges offering
professional courses very seriously limited in numbers.
This made college education very
unattractive for the rich and affluent as they saw no benefit in sending their
children for long years of college that brought in no dividends.
With the existing curriculum colleges had
little hope of getting any donation from private philanthropists and wealthy
families since the wealthy saw the education being totally worthless bringing
no monetary benefits to their progenies and thereby the family.
The only colleges then – around about 1865
- that were beginning to offer courses in sciences were Harvard, Yale and the
about-to-be-launched Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Some colleges thought that offering
vocational training perhaps might attract students to the colleges.
At these times the presidency of Harvard
was run by a series of short-term clerics who were bringing the college
education to a gradual but certain decline.
Wealthy families were questionless that the
prevailing education ought to change but change to what they had little idea.
It was in such time of educational crisis
in American Colleges that Eliot returned to the United States and the first job
he accepted was not at the Harvard but at the newly founded MIT.
He was appointed professor of Analytical
Chemistry.
At this very moment great churning was
taking place in the management of Harvard University where the overseers of the
University were shifting from the elected legislatures and clergymen to the
former alumni and graduates of the college.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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