Monday, October 14, 2002

Fr. Schall on Education

In his column for Crisis Magazine this month, Fr. James Schall looks at "What's Wrong With Education". The final paragraph is an apt conclusion to this piece:

“Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education,” Chesterton provocatively added. “It is education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.” This does not mean “dogmatic” teachers cannot be wrong. They are the only ones who can be. The only teacher worth arguing with is a teacher who professes to be pursuing the truth rather than the formulation of his own unanswerable feelings. I can argue with someone willing to give reasons for his position. I cannot argue with someone who has no position apart from his feelings or who has a theory according to which no positions are possible.

I'd highly recommend you read Fr. Schall's column.

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