Time Capsule #159
Re-opening The Time Capsule.
Greetings subscribers,
It was my intention to start a creativity-themed newsletter, which is in line with my academic interests and would contribute to my personal brand. It ended up just feeling like more work and crashed on impact.
These newsletters to me were meant to be a creative outlet — where I can write about ideas that interest me, test out new writing styles, and flex my creative muscles on a regular basis. I am going to go back to that — to the weekly Time Capsule — and forgoing any branding or productivity or monetizing my passions. Perhaps it will come anyways, but I no longer am interested in doing so for its own sake.
So welcome back, and thanks for being here!
One of the chief objects of education is to train flexibility of the mind, to make a man quick to comprehend other points of view than his own.
—Sir Richard Livingstone
✏️ On Modern Education
What is the purpose of education?
Is it the preparation of the individual for productive work? Is it the cultivation of the mind and soul? Is it to provide free daycare?
The current education system worries me. It is a reflection of the society it exists within, in the sense that what is taught, how it is taught, and by whom it is taught is a reflection of the priorities and the objectives of the society in which it resides. In my interaction with students — which mostly occurs as the post-secondary level — I see a mass of highly intelligent students who have been misdirected by the educational system. I see the pursuit of top grades. I see a pressure to maximize ‘productivity’. I see a system which almost solely values economic output, at all costs. This is not the purpose of education.
Our education system provide instruction, which is much different than education. Instruction focuses on the acquisition of facts and knowledge of what is good, right, and important — as the system defines it. A proper education system provides the acquisition of facts and knowledge in consequence; it is not the end in itself, and is not dictated by the system that delivers it. It does so by teaching the individual how to think, how to discern truth from falsehood, and how to persuade others of the truth. It schools in the meta-physical, including the purpose of man and his highest ideal. It teaches the individual to be an individual by giving him the tools to till his own plot, interact with his fellow man, and contribute positively to the human project as a result.
I see none of this in the modern education system, and I fear it will only become worse in the coming decades. It is not the student’s fault; he is borne blinded by a system of dis-enlightenment.
It is the responsibility of a good government and a good education system to produce students who are capable of logic and independent thinking, even if leads to contrarian beliefs.
Docendo discimus
By teaching, we learn
💡 Food for Thought
You must learn how to lose before you can win well.
🔗 Sunday Best
Deep Roots, Hard Looks, and Shame
An annual letter by Permenant Equity’s Brent Beshore
There seems to be a Rubicon that we all have to cross, and from my experience usually the choice presents between the ages 35 and 45. It’s the decision to be you, or to continue to play a fictitious character. If you haven’t gotten there yet, it’s coming. You can prepare by actively seeking real relationships and community. Or, you can keep accumulating soul-level debt, which is like piling sticks of dynamite next to a roaring fire.
A Close Reading of ‘Nature’, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
My case in favour of human writing.
Pavane for a Dead Princess
Only right to end with this track.
For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more, remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men’s hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.
—JRR Tolkien
See you next week.
AT