Sylvia Manning sent the following letter (response sent from mail@cartalk.com).

Long ago I was part of an attempt to turn public education around--back in the early '70s, when Neil Postman and Herbert Kohl and those kinds of voices were being heard. Then I had to give up hope of the public schools improving, because--and I went in, as a Texas teacher--they were going backwards fast.

I am back again to the public school system after 10 years as a librarian-- and find it not improved since I left it. I think we need another effort to bring the schools back to the students, to remind ourselves that nobody teaches anything--rather, people learn.

We need to look at Summerhill by A. S. Neill again, or at anybody who is willing to discuss learning outside the classroom environment. We need to let kids discover their beauty again, their sense of self and creative responsibility.

Schools bring young people together. That's what they provide, so that each student has a sense of their own generation in society. Perhaps that's the educational component which public schools CAN provide, and not much else. In which case...

Isn't there an important new book out called JEFFERSON'S CHILDREN? I've not read it, can't find it down here on the Mexican border, Texas. I think it opens the discussion again of whether we should have schools at all.

You know, Henry Adams was asking your very question when he wrote THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. I think he decided he didn't know what an education should be, but he knew that his sisters--who were NOT receiving a formal education--were possibly preparing for a better life than he, because they would be able to minister to others--to the sick, the old, children.

Your list is a good one.

And maybe it has to do with saving the oral tradition--which you also do well.

Back to Tommy's Education Forum Part II

[ Previous Letter | Letters Index | Next Letter ]