i here quote Thomas Jefferson, both humanist AND cynic.
When ask what will mankind believe in , Jefferson replied , with a touch of acid i suspect "The quest should be 'What will Mankind NOT believe in'. "
The part o me the preaches Self-Reliance centers mostly on "One MUST seek knowledge of and by oneself"
i went to a great Prep School that DEMANDED that one always thinks independently, and with vigor, and taught all knowledge that one learns "by rote" is a destroyer of minds and imagination.
Our educational system in the overall is sadly geared to "by rote" , this leads to people to a kind of mentality that make minds easily propagandized.
The Sacred Studies class of this Anglican School in the graduation year gave ONE ASSIGNMENY for the whole year, it was assigned in September and was to be delivered in mid-April, all one had to do, to determine your grade that year in Sacred Studies , was to then deliver an essay titled What is Man?
The Rt.Rev. McDowell, a great teacher, stated firmly, if you deliver a paper arguing that to be man is to realize the view of utter nihilistic atheism is correct, and you have made your arguments well , and written exceptionally, you could get a 10 score(that being perfect--equivalent to an A+)
The school had about a 10% percentage of their students to be jews.
One of the most curious matters is i got to know Walter Annenberg's son, and witness what amounted to a genius that that could not control it---i think his mind finally "exploded".
The cause of his death was faked, his father published that it was from cancer, at 21, but truth is a committed suicide while at Harvard.
He was a brilliant pianist, but he was beginning to play and play and play and play and play the piano, to the point of exhaustion day after day.
He was Annenberg's only child, he was never to have another, as such he divested himself of his vast fortune to charities, most all for education, including for inner city kids(that was something like 500 million dollars).
i think he generally noted that his charity was in memory of his son. Just some trivia---so it goes:) Max |
