Head Lines offers Dr. Michael E. Cooper's perspective on topics relevant to education and the Brewster community.
Reflecting on the Relevancy of Early Philosophy
April 2012
How is it possible that the writings of a 16th century French philosopher and essayist can grab your attention in such a way as to cause you to reflect on education today from the frame of reference of the 1500s? What could possibly have been written about educating a child in 1580 that was so prescient as to be considered in a seminar for Heads of Schools in 2012? What makes these writings as applicable today as when they were written almost 500 years ago? The answer to these, and other questions, were each taken into careful consideration at the recent heads of schools Fellowship Program at the Klingenstein Center, Teachers College Columbia University, in which I had the good fortune of participating.
So often is the case where, as heads of schools, we are called upon to act and make decisions without much time for reflection. To be in a situation where it’s all about reflection and thinking differently about contemporary issues in independent school education was a readjustment process of some degree, and refreshing. To have the luxury of time to consider different facets of education that are confronted by heads of schools on a daily basis, and to do that with 19 other heads from around the world, was invaluable.
First, it was gratifying to be able to draw upon my personal experience to put into context what was being read and to consider how these were related to our individual settings. As Heads, when we were students the first time around, our level of experience was limited by the stage of our careers that we were in at the time. Approaching these same issues with a broader frame of reference allowed for a much deeper level of consideration of the topics before us. Besides what was taken away from the experience regarding the general topics with which we were presented and perspectives that were offered, the importance of taking time to reflect and consider issues was an equally important element that I have come away with from participating. I was reminded of what retired Lieutenant General Hal Moore said about the importance of taking time for reflection. While heads of schools are not in the throes of battle (although at times it feels that way) as Lt. Gen. Moore was, the principle of taking time out for reflection in the heat of things is solid advice. Too often we only look at what it is we need to do and do not spend enough time on why we are doing what we are doing, and whether there might be a different process to bring into play other than the way our experience is telling us how it should be accomplished. Spending a full two weeks on contemporary independent school topics, along with larger issues facing secondary education, was confirming with regard to how each of our schools was addressing these topics, yet it also was mind expanding in that it allowed us to talk about things without concern of being judged or evaluated to consider new ways of thinking and approaches to our challenges.
But back to my original question about what can be learned from a 16th century philosopher and essayist that has relevance to the 21st century. Certainly there are any number of conclusions that can be taken from the writings of Michel de Montaigne (certainly framed by our own experiences, as we are the product of our experience), but one of the more salient points from his writings on the education of children speaks to a viewpoint through the lens of the 16th century that is as commonly held today as it was then. “I know nothing about education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.” To underscore his point, he turns to the use of metaphor and how raising and educating a child is just like farming. You can spend time plowing and preparing the ground before planting seeds, but it’s in the cultivation and nurturing of the young plant that can determine its outcome. The challenge becomes supplying the proper amount of fertilizer and water to the plant to help it thrive toward producing the desired end product. Yet, even with the proper amount of nurturing, events along the way, like weather and amount of sunlight, can alter the shape of the plant and what kind and how much fruit it will bear. Because of this indeterminate outcome, he suggests that we should guide children along the way to be their best and help them find their chosen path and to not place too much emphasis on how they will turn out based on how they act along the way; that flowers bloom at different times and rates and to rush a blossom is to potentially spoil the flower. As a late bloomer myself, I can easily identify with Montaigne’s admonition about not locking a child into a path based on what may be known at a particular stage of development. For me, it wasn’t until I reached college that my path became a lot clearer and I started to get my act together (a story for another time). His overall goal for a child’s education is not for them to necessarily be an erudite individual, but one who can successfully navigate life based on a broad set of experiences; as he states, the end goal of education should be an individual with a well-formed versus a well-filled mind.
Considering Montaigne’s perspective and orientation to education to what is offered at Brewster with our new emphasis on project-based learning and emotional literacy, I can see even more the threads between what he was saying in 1580 and how apropos his thoughts are for today. His writings offer another way of examining how important it is to not simply know something, but how impactful it is to be able to understand its usefulness and application. While not easy reading, I would encourage anyone to explore Montaigne’s writings. His validation of the timelessness of education in so many respects is worthy of our consideration. As Montaigne reminds us: “Knowing something does not mean knowing it by heart; that simply means putting it in the larder of our memory. That which we rightly ‘know’ can be deployed without looking back at the model, without turning our eyes back towards the book. What a wretched ability it is which is purely and simply bookish! Book-learning should serve as an ornament not as a foundation.”
And when you consider his thoughts in the context of what you will find in the pages that follow, his writings are quite visionary when you consider where Brewster Academy is today after 125 years and where we are headed – building upon the tried and true and rethinking the core elements of what education is about.
Best regards,
Mike Cooper
Head of School