How can we make our teaching so potent?

The real difficulty, the difficulty that has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the emotional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual?

(Albert Einstein, from an address at Swarthmore College, 1938).

Wolf pack strategy and cooperation

The first 3 wolves are the older or sick and they set the pace of the group. If it was on the contrary, they would be left behind and lost contact with the pack. In ambush case they would be sacrificed.

The following are the 5 strongest. In the center follow the remaining members of the pack, and at the end of the group the other 5 stronger.

Last, alone, follows the alpha wolf. It controls everything from the rear. That position can control the whole group, decide the direction to follow and anticipate the attacks of opponents.

The pack follows the rhythm of the elders and the head of command that imposes the spirit of mutual help not leaving anyone behind. A lesson to be learned.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

(Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight, 1916)    

Simple, but not simpler

«That the vulgar express their thoughts clearly, is far from true; and what perspicuity can be found among them proceeds not from the easiness of their language, but the shallowness of their thoughts».

(Samuel Johnson)

«Che le persone volgari esprimano i propri pensieri in modo chiaro è tutt'altro che vero; e la chiarezza che si può trovare in loro deriva non dalla padronanza della lingua, bensì dalla pochezza dei loro pensieri».

«Dass die einfachen Leute ihre Gedanken klar ausdrücken stimmt überhaupt nicht; und was dabei an Klarheit zu finden ist, kommt nicht von der Einfachheit ihrer Sprache, sondern von der Flachheit ihrer Gedanken».

non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa

“Maestro, che è quel ch’i’ odo?
e che gent’è che par nel duol sì vinta?”.
Ed elli a me: “Questo misero modo
tegnon l’anime triste di coloro
che visser sanza ‘nfamia e sanza lodo.
Mischiate sono a quel cattivo coro
de li angeli che non furon ribelli
né fur fedeli a Dio, ma per sé fuoro.
Caccianli i ciel per non esser men belli,
né lo profondo inferno li riceve,
ch’alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d’elli”.
E io: “Maestro, che è tanto greve
a lor, che lamentar li fa sì forte?”.
Rispuose: “Dicerolti molto breve.
Questi non hanno speranza di morte
e la lor cieca vita è tanto bassa,
che ‘nvidiosi son d’ogne altra sorte.
Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa”.

“Master, what is it that I hear? Who are
those people so defeated by their pain?”
And he to me: “This miserable way
is taken by the sorry souls of those
who lived without disgrace and without praise.
They now commingle with the coward angels,
the company of those who were not rebels
nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.
The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,
have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them -
even the wicked cannot glory in them.”
And I: “What is it, master, that oppresses
these souls, compelling them to wail so loud?”
He answered: “I shall tell you in few words.
Those who are here can place no hope in death,
and their blind life is so abject that they
are envious of every other fate.
The world will let no fame of theirs endure;
both justice and compassion must disdain them;
let us not talk of them, but look and pass.”

(Dante Alighieri, Inferno, canto III (ca. 1317) (Courtney Langdon transl. 1918))

Schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders.

I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers to care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic -- it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.

(John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, 1992).