Some things never change…

I love the Internet!

I came across this wonderful site that contained selected writings of Eleanor Roosevelt.

“What is the purpose of education? This question agitates scholars, teachers, statesmen, every group, in fact, of thoughtful men and women. The conventional answer is the acquisition of knowledge, the reading of books, and the learning of facts. Perhaps because there are so many books and the branches of knowledge in which we can learn facts are so multitudinous today, we begin to hear more frequently that the function of education is to give children a desire to learn and to teach them how to use their minds and where to go to acquire facts when their curiosity is aroused. Even more all-embracing than this is the statement made not long ago, before a group of English headmasters, by the Archbishop of York, that “the true purpose of education is to produce citizens.”

If this is the goal—and in a democracy it would seem at least an important part of the ultimate achievement—then we must examine our educational system from a new point of view…”

Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education by Eleanor Roosevelt
Originally published in Pictorial Review, April 1930

Some things never change! A worthy read.

~ by zoewalker on October 8, 2008.