Who and what are you? I work at an institution of higher education. I have some uncomfortable insights about it, and am really enjoying reading Anya’s blog and those who participate in this discussion. Thanks.

Which brings us to the motivations for the attainment of such knowledge. One, of course, is the more practical of the two, namely a means to earn a living. Investments of time, money, and exertion produce a profitable return. The other motivation is more ontological, as it transforms one’s being into a definable entity for all society to behold. I am a doctor. You are a plumber. This comes with the inevitable stratification of social class, but so what? That is forever the way reality is, and the sooner one learns this the sooner one can make decisions (based on motivation) about those things that contribute to one’s status in society.

The second kind of knowledge speaks to those ideas and facts and skills having an enduring importance and application for anyone anywhere at any time. Education viewed from a long position focuses on universally recurrent insights and experiences regarding the nature of reality, humanity, or consciousness that ultimately becomes independent of culture or epoch. Put another way, through history some things are inductively learned through experience and then abstracted, or deduced, into more general knowledge that attains a status of truth having widespread applicability. Without this process, how could anyone define any notion of human progress or hope let alone obtain it?

Since we are all humans presumably embarked on a journey of improvement for ourselves and society it would follow that the most important topics to learn are those that develop the mind. One should teach first about humans, not about devices or technology since these things constantly change. There are first principles and reasoning skills underlying all else that precede facts and arbitrarily-established standards. I will confess that perhaps certain choices among many possible standards render them less arbitrary, but that can only further show my larger point that reasoning comes first.

All this to say that a classical, trivium-based education has proven time and again to be superior to the Dewey-based pragmatism as a foundation for secondary and tertiary activities (read: trade and professional training) for most intelligent people. Learn the tools of grammar, logic, and rhetoric first then go after more formal or DIY education. Only then can you learn to discern the ubiquitous moonshine from the truth, the sophism of politicians and lawyers from the street view and wisdom of the ages. How can anything be more pragmatic than honing your intuitive senses and reasoning faculties to make better use of limited and ephemeral resources that may come one’s way?

Thanks Anya, we appreciate your getting involved in Purpos/ed – we hope you and your readers will get involved by heading over to http://purposed.org.uk and, at the very least, subscribing to out weekly newsletter!

Nice post – having seen you speak in a DIYU fashion a couple of times I was wondering if you’d mention career and employment in a positive way (you’d have been the first, and would have added a welcome balance to the prevailing ethos of purpos/ed so far – despite what us EduTechLiberals say it is the purpose of education for a lot of people). But then I get this:

“We’re living in a time when the basic principles of Western civilization are under severe scrutiny: how we get our energy, how we make things, move around and feed ourselves, is very likely threatening our future as a species. When the ground under our feet is collapsing in that way, it’s no surprise we’re spotting serious flaws and cracks in the foundation at the level of politics, economics and social institutions.”

Which makes me think of @dougald at Dark Mountain and makes me very happy indeed. It’s the stuff on the margin between business as usual and Dark-Mountain-World that interests me (hence my “roll your own” stuff about degree awarding powers). Glad to see you here too! I look forward to various levels of disagreement between us in the coming year.

Thanks again.