LETTERS: IDEA FOR EDUCATION DOESN'T HAVE PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

To the editor:

In Dr. Michael Bauman's Oct. 2 guest column he related what he sees as the appropriate role for public education. There may be a lot to be said for his view that a meaningful public education can result only from a Socratic teaching approach which focuses on eternal philosophical questions: What is the purpose of life? What is the good life? And so on. Though Bauman does make (very) passing reference to the need for sound, 3R's basic education, his desire for a major shift in emphasis is apparent. His (classical) approach would require rigorous teacher-student interaction, focusing primarily on the philosophical, as opposed to the more mundane. The end result? According to Bauman? Wisdom. A quality to be much more admired than technical or other (in his view) less skills. Presumably, Bauman might hope that secondary school students would be well prepared to continue their quest for ... For what? For spending their remaining lives in pursuit of elusive truths? Or, in perhaps assuming their rightful places as philosopher-kings envisioned by Plato? The tone of Dr. Bauman's column was such that one is left wondering if he has had much contact with the "real" world, outside the hallowed halls of Hillsdale College.

He seems to blame (perhaps to harsh a word) public schools for emphasizing the technocratic, the command of facts, and the acquisition of practical skills, at the expense of the quest for wisdom. In Bauman's opinion, attempts at self-esteem building should also "get the boot".

In some objective sense, it may or may not be admirable if school districts implemented an across-the-board approach to teaching which shifted emphasis in the direction recommended by Bauman. Presumably, students would read the great books of world civilization, and teachers would de emphasize what Bauman might consider "lowly" vocational technical education, and acquisition of facts and practical skills. All in the never ending quest for eternal verities, and philosophical wisdom. With the banishment of self-esteem building, Bauman might consider the task complete.

Bauman's theoretical pontification in favor of a kind of philosophical/elitist approach to education, no doubt serves him and the students at Hillsdale College well. Certainly, it should not be discouraged in that setting. However, I would guess that any attempt to implement his recommendation in the bootheel would justifiably raise an outcry making that directed against Outcomes Based Education pale in comparison.

For him to implicitly criticize public education because schools lack the courage to go against the grain of public opinion falls into the realm of an unfair, if not cheap shot. At the schools. At the public. At democracy.

STEVE MOSLEY

Sikeston