Skip to content

Teach A Man to Reason, And He’ll Think For A Lifetime

Teach A Man to Reason, And He’ll Think For A Lifetime

April 18, 2016 SVadmin

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Articles, Poetry, Science

Post navigation

PREVIOUS
A Nuclear Armageddon in the Making in South Asia
NEXT
What We Know About The Progressive Future, Part I: Here Come The Millennials

Join Our Mailing List

4 thoughts on “Teach A Man to Reason, And He’ll Think For A Lifetime”

  1. RickD says:
    April 24, 2016 at 6:03 am

    Firstly, I must thank Depleton for this wonderful ,very important and quite entertaining piece.

    Educated people are an essential component of a democratic society. If people are to lead and not be led then they must perforce be educated enough to be able to see and understand the choices before them. Far too often we succumb to appeals to our baser instincts rather than making calm, rational and studied judgements before forming opinions.

    “If a man begins in certainty he will end in doubt.” Francis Bacon

    I am not prone to conspiracy theories but it does seem that the decline in our system of pubic education, coupled with the rising costs of higher education, has a sinister design, to keep an uneducated populace more manageable.

    “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment.” Robert Maynard Hutchins

    We live, today, amidst a cacophonous political climate in which our candidates for the highest office rarely if ever appeal to our minds, seemingly never enumerating the details of their campaign promises, instead, and in one particularly heinous case, make nakedly blatant appeals to our hatreds , our bigotry, our darkest fears. This is made far easier by working towards an under educated voter.

    “People are mostly afraid of reason. They should be afraid of stupidity. If only they knew what was really fearful.” J.W. Goethe

    Thanks again, Depelton, for a very thought provoking piece.

  2. Don Pelton says:
    April 24, 2016 at 8:46 am

    Thanks RickD.

    I appreciate your thoughtful and well-reasoned comments. I couldn’t agree more.

    I’m not sure exactly how a conspiracy to erode education would work, but there seems to be no doubt that dumbing down America works to the particular bipartisan benefit of the money party (most Republicans and, sadly, a majority of the Democrats).

    But the times they are a-changin’ … I hope.

    I’m about — I hope — to post an article from the Campaign for America’s Future that talks optimistically about the growing influence of the Millennial generation on our politics and democracy.

    Don.

  3. RickD says:
    April 25, 2016 at 6:59 am

    Thanks for the props, Depleton, much appreciated, as is this forum as well, keep up this important work.

    I do not claim the mantle of education expert but must respond to your query as to how the erosion of our public education system is occurring. I would start with the declining budgets, year after year less money is being allotted to our schools, to their literacy programs, after school projects and a myriad of other, very important functions.
    The growth of Charter Schools, many of which are simply profit centers abjectly failing our children. Others are disguising religious education as liberal arts., is yet another brick in the wall of a less educated populace.
    The textbooks chosen nationally to be used in our schools mostly are decided upon by the Texas School Boards…a fact please look it up, amazing as it sounds its truth! These books omit much scientific knowledge as well as slanting history itself.

    Sidebar alert:
    I am fortunate enough to share my life, and my political activism, with my beautiful and intelligent redhead, a woman with only one flaw, her bad taste in men, obviously…;-) She is a co-founder and current president of a local neighborhood activist group that has been doing good works for over ten years and counting.
    I bring this up only to make a point. A local school district had to cut several programs, one of which supplemented its free lunch program by distributing food on Fridays to students who might otherwise not eat all weekend..these children, as sad as this sounds, depended solely upon the free lunch programs for their only meals!
    .This was discovered by alert teachers noting dramatic changes in a students behavior and attitude on Mondays, as heartbreaking as this sounds it is the truth. The aforementioned neighborhood group sprang into action, getting contributions of food from individuals, markets and other sources in order to supply the kids with food over the weekends. The program has been a success and is ongoing, and teachers are noting increased participation from these kids.
    I ask you, shouldnt our children not have to depend upon the good will and activism of the few to eat enough to be able to be educated?

  4. depelton says:
    April 25, 2016 at 7:24 am

    Rich (Rick?):

    I agree with every word you’ve written (and yes, I’ve heard that about the textbooks and the Texas school boards).

    I’m also concerned about the charter-school movement, another stealth privatization strategy..

    Your partner’s weekend food-for-kids initiative is wonderful, an expression of the best in human nature, but I agree with you: in a rational, humane “we” society, this wouldn’t be necessary!

    BTW, aside: I’m not sure why the WordPress software managing this website keeps requiring you to get approval for your comments. I have a general setting that previously approved commenters are automatically approved, so this seems to be some sort of bug (I just upgraded the version level of WordPress, so it probably has something to do with that). I’m working on it. In the meantime, i appreciate your patience. (I even get prompted to approve my own comments! 🙂 )

    Don.

Comments are closed.

Comments are closed.

CLICK IMAGE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION

DONATE TO THE FOOD BANK OF NEVADA COUNTY

(CLICK IMAGE)

DONATE TO NEVADA COUNTY RELIEF FUND (click image below)

Subscribe to Sierra Voices Journal

Jack Kornfield: A Steady Heart in Time of Corona Virus (Part I)

Erika Lewis, Shaye Cohn, Craig Flory – Got A Mind To Ramble

“Everlasting Arms”

Tara Brach: A Steady Heart in Time of Corona Virus (Part II)

Recent Posts

  • Bill Clinton Makes a Pathetic Attempt to Retroactively Justify His Decision to Expand NATO
  • The Ukraine War Seen “from 30,000 feet”
  • Former NATO Analyst & Top UN Official Says THIS Is The REAL Reason For War In Ukraine
  • DeSantis’ Attack on Disney Shows how Fascism Progresses Toward the Later Stages of Tyranny
  • The Man Who Predicted Russia Ukraine War

Recent Comments

  • Putin in Media Myth and Reality: Which is Which? on Ukraine War: A Bonanza for the Arms Industry
  • SVadmin on Countdown to World War III?
  • Pratima Basu on Scenes From Our Weekend at Lake Tahoe
  • IN PRAISE OF WARRIORS, NOT WAR on Celebrated to Death: Memorial Day Is Killing Us
  • SVadmin on How Suzanne Simard changed our relationship to trees

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009

Categories

  • Afghanistan
  • Aging
  • American Empire
  • Anti-Depressant
  • Arms Sales
  • Articles
  • Atlas Obscura
  • Authoritarianism
  • Black Lives
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Blog
  • Buddhism
  • Budget
  • Buskers
  • Capitalism
  • Carbon Offsets
  • Cartoon
  • China
  • Climate Change
  • Compassion
  • Constitution
  • Corona Virus
  • Corruption
  • Cosmology
  • Coup
  • COVID-19
  • Democracy
  • Depression
  • Disenfranchisement
  • Drought
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Election Fraud
  • Empire
  • Environment
  • Extinction
  • Farming
  • Fascism
  • Filibuster
  • Fire!
  • Food Insecurity
  • Foreign Policy
  • Forest Ecology
  • Forest Management
  • Fracking
  • Gardening
  • Gender
  • GOP
  • Great Movies
  • Groundwater
  • Halloween
  • Health Care
  • High Country News
  • History
  • Humor
  • Hunger
  • Idaho-Maryland Mine
  • Ignorance
  • Immigration
  • Indigenous Peoples' Day
  • Insects
  • Israel
  • Labor
  • Lobbying
  • Local
  • Lunar Influence
  • Marijuana
  • Masks
  • Medical Care
  • Men
  • Men's Issues
  • Mental Health
  • Middle Class
  • Military Industrial Complex
  • Mining
  • MMT
  • Modern Monetary Theory
  • Moral Obligations
  • Music
  • Native Americans
  • NATO
  • Neoliberalism
  • New Cold War
  • Nuclear War
  • Nutrition
  • Oligarchy
  • Palestine
  • Pandemic
  • Parenting
  • Peace
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Physics
  • Poetry
  • Police
  • Politics
  • Populism
  • Press
  • Race
  • Religion
  • Republican Derangement
  • Reviews
  • Revolution
  • Right-wing terrorism
  • Rights of Nature
  • Rise Gold
  • Rivers
  • Romance
  • Russia
  • Russiagate
  • Science
  • Slavery
  • Sleep
  • Smoke Inhalation
  • Student Debt
  • Summer
  • Technology
  • The Hartmann Report
  • Trump Virus
  • Tuba Skinny
  • Tyranny
  • Ukraine
  • Uncategorized
  • Unipolar vs. Multipolar
  • Vaccine Refusal
  • Vaccine Safety
  • Voting
  • War
  • War on Government
  • Water
  • Watersheds
  • Wells
  • Wildfires
  • Winter
  • Women's Issues
  • Work
  • Yemen

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2022   All Rights Reserved.