Next week is spring break and there will be no school. This is a great opportunity to take a step back from this institution. This decline, it seems to me, suggests as a bonus some activities for the week to come.
School, as we know, educates, socializes and qualifies. At the heart of its mission to educate is the transmission of knowledge. All together, the knowledge retained and taught forms what is called the curriculum that the school transmits. How to justify it? What ends does he aim for? These are topics that are constantly discussed in education. The debates and controversies are then numerous and often very lively, not without reason. We will discuss things that are not always easily compatible, such as the intrinsic value of this knowledge, their role in building personal autonomy and in the training of citizens, their importance for the exercise of a profession or their contribution to the creation of valuable human capital.
But there is an argument that in my opinion we do not use enough: it highlights the pleasures that this knowledge provides. These pleasures are very particular, in particular because they are only accessible if we have acquired — only if we possess — certain knowledge. Once this is done, however, you can taste it. And what we then discover is incomparable and makes life richer, sweeter, more beautiful.
I am not inventing anything by recalling this. In fact, old Aristotle had already said everything on this subject by developing his beautiful formula which ensures that all human beings, by nature, desire to know. But concrete examples seem necessary to me.
Incomparable pleasures
Mathematics comes to mind quickly. What we contemplate there resides in a cold and austere world, but where incomparable beauties await us: if you prepare your entry into this world well, it will give you great pleasures.
For example, you learn what prime numbers are. Something easy to understand. Then you learn that centuries ago someone (Euclid) demonstrated that there are infinitely many of them and how he did it. We watch the demonstration, we understand and we say: “Wow! » This “wow!” » is a typical reaction to these singular pleasures.
You have been taught that the Earth is round and you have an idea of its circumference. We have taught you basic notions of geometry. Then you learn that centuries ago someone (Eratosthenes), with the tiny means he had at his time and with great sagacity, was able to correctly estimate this circumference. Once again: wow!
You have learned things about poetry, about rich or sufficient rhymes, about feet, caesuras. You are reading a poem made of more than enough rich rhymes… three feet. And it’s a beautiful story that is superbly told. Wow!
You will easily continue this list of examples. Providing access to these pleasures through the knowledge transmitted is for me one of the greatest missions of the school. Once again, it makes life richer, sweeter, more beautiful.
I know that teachers, passionate about knowledge and familiar with these “wow!” ”, are doing their best to make it happen. But the house can and must contribute, especially during spring break. This provides the added bonus of hours of passionate conversations.
No let up for the “wow!” »
Those “wow!” » are easily generated by mind games, riddles and puzzles carefully chosen to be accessible to and appreciated by the person to whom they are offered. You quickly get a taste for it, and I bet your offspring will soon get you going again by subjecting you to difficult ones.
Does the young person like a singer or a rapper? If necessary, elements of prosody could help him discover new pleasures when listening. Does he like birds? Are you going abroad? A small book on local ornithology is a promising investment to generate “wow!” “.
His new passion is history? A carefully planned visit to a certain area of this country is required, and a few riddles may help. Is it math and art, his passions? By paying by credit card to enter the museum, after having deposited it on the machine provided for this purpose, you explain to him (which is true…) how the infinity of prime numbers guarantees the security of the transaction.
Many other things can generate those precious “wow!” “. Do you see examples of this during spring break? Will you tell me?
Happy spring break. I’ll take one, too. We’ll see you here on March 16.