{"id":115,"date":"2018-05-12T17:01:02","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T21:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/?p=115"},"modified":"2018-05-12T17:01:02","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T21:01:02","slug":"renewing-the-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/2018\/05\/12\/renewing-the-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewing the Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Topping, R. N. S. (2015).\u00a0Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education<\/em><\/a>. Washington DC: Catholic University Press.<\/p>\n

\"\"This is a compendium of writings on education ranging from the classical (including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas) to the recent, primarily (although not exclusively) from a Catholic perspective. The nearly 40 entries can be read as a continuum or as selections. \u00a0Topping provides a brief introduction, further reading and study questions for each selection, which make this very useful as a teaching text. Because the entries are so numerous and varied I focus this annotation on Topping\u2019s overall introduction, which is brief, provocative, and beautifully written.<\/p>\n

Topping states the purpose of the book is \u201cto introduce students and teachers to a noble tradition of debate over the first principles of education\u201d (p.1).\u00a0 He contrasts liberal education (\u201cliberating\u201d because it lifts a person from ignorance) with the kind of \u201cservile\u201d education \u2013 training in technique; preparation for a career – that is emphasized in modern education.\u00a0 He notes the ideal goal of education goes beyond knowledge and \u201ctemporal welfare\u201d to promote eternal good or \u201chappiness with God\u201d, infinite love (p.3).\u00a0 Topping expresses a recurring theme in writings on Catholic education as \u201cthe narrowing of our ambitions for our students [leading to] the abandoning of liberal study for the sake of mere economy\u201d (p.4).\u00a0 This is connected with devaluing the role of reason and the separation of reason and faith.<\/p>\n

Topping describes two \u201ceducational heresies\u201d that have eroded the early vision of education.<\/p>\n

The first is the late medieval retreat from the \u201cmetaphysical realism\u201d (Thomism, after St. Thomas Aquinas) that combines sense experience of the particular and reason that discerns the essence that unites them in \u201cclasses\u201d and \u00a0the rise of \u201cnominalism\u201d (e.g. William of Ockham) that \u201cobjects are discrete entities\u201d with no causal links (p.6).\u00a0 The latter separates faith and reason and God becomes unreachable and unknowable: \u201creason has no rope to heaven\u201d (p.6).\u00a0 A memorable line here: \u201cfaith flounders without reason for the same reason that legs fall flat without feet\u201d (p.7).\u00a0 By the time of Kant (1724-1804) reason is reduced to empirical observation (facts) and \u201canything outside the senses is relegated to values, that is, to opinions\u201d (p.7).\u00a0 Reducing faith to opinion or \u201cvalues\u201d leaves no way to \u201cdefend the rationality of faith or, ultimately, the unity of the curriculum.\u00a0 Another memorable line: \u201ctake God away from the universe and you lose the university\u201d (p.7).<\/p>\n

The second \u201ceducational heresy\u201d is a consequence of the foregoing \u201clost hope in heaven \u2026 \u201cthe dream of a perfect society\u201d (p.7).\u00a0 Topping explains that secular (which simply means an \u201cage\u201d) is not bad, and that Catholics have always believed the world is essentially good, but \u201cworldly modern philosophers\u201d such as Rousseau attributed evil to society, and the road to individual freedom as education in knowing one\u2019s own mind, a kind of \u201cenlightened self-interest\u201d that \u201cvalues self-esteem over virtue and self-expression over obedience\u201d (p.8). [In Lonergan and Crowe terms, cultivating the way of experience and not the way of heritage)<\/p>\n

Topping\u2019s own view of education follows Newman\u2019s ideal of \u201cformation\u201d.\u00a0 He stresses that education is not \u201ca thing\u201d but \u201ca process\u201d.\u00a0 A problem is that \u201cteachers have been taught to say that they wish children to explore their own values.\u00a0 This is cowardly.\u00a0 Teaching is violent.\u00a0 Every act of instruction is an incursion upon a living organism that you hope to change through the encounter\u201d (p. 9). Freshmen are \u201chalf-formed\u201d and we need to form them wisely.\u00a0 He also notes the problem that many teachers (and we could include faculty) are not well informed about the origins (history and goals) of their own disciplines.<\/p>\n

The selected readings are divided into four sections: The aims of education, the matter of learning (its form and content or curriculum) methods of teaching (pedagogy) and \u201crenewal in our time\u201d which focuses on contemporary challenges and responses in Catholic education.<\/p>\n

Questions:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Can we compare\/contrast Topping\u2019s view of Rosseau\u2019s \u201cknowing one\u2019s own mind\u201d as inimical to education with Lonergan\u2019s emphasis on knowing how one thinks as essential to education? What are the essential differences and why is this important?<\/li>\n
  2. Is it accurate to say that reason is generally <\/em>de-valued in today\u2019s education, or only in relation to faith?<\/li>\n
  3. We constantly stress the need for students to develop \u201ccritical thinking\u201d, but especially in light of the above, what do we really mean by that?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Topping, R. N. S. (2015).\u00a0Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education. Washington DC: Catholic University Press. This is a compendium of writings on education ranging from the classical (including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas) to the recent, primarily (although not exclusively) from a Catholic perspective. The nearly 40 entries can be … Continue reading “Renewing the Mind”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-higher-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/cheb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}