Education Not Just About Book Knowledge

Two items came to mind as I was reading the “Standardized Testing Wreaks Havoc on Education” letter in the April 2004 issue. The first is William Butler Yeat’s observation, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

And the second, published shortly after World War II, comes from a principal from one school system (I’m sorry I don’t know which one) which he distributed at the beginning of every school year:

“Dear Teacher: I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers, children poisoned by educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses, women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students become humane. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.”

Thank you for your excellent publication & best of luck in the future.

Sincerely,

Ellen Hanratty