Fictional?
Well...
Just because something is a metaphor doesn't mean it can't be real.
-- Death in Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
We poets never tell the truth, except when we tell it in fables. ... These clockwork dolls will tell you the truth about me.
-- The Author in The Surprise by Gilbert K. Chesterton
But yes, there is a real Trouble, who really saved Weathel, whom Weathel really neglected, and who left for Army boot camp yesterday afternoon. I'll miss him.
Oh, the Engineers, how I hate to even think about them! But, yet I should, because someone must stand against them.
*takes out soap-box, begins declaming*
Behold, their own words damn them!
I believe that the child should be stimulated and controlled in his work through the life of the community. ...
The Engineer is first and foremost a creature of control.
I believe that education cannot be unified in the study of science, ... because apart from human activity, nature itself is not a unity; ... and to attempt to make it the centre of work by itself, is to introduce a principle of radiation rather than one of concentration. ...
He believes humanity is alone in a sea of chaos. To him there is no joy in nature--it may not be appreciated as a work of art, nor the subject of sincere study, and he must beat the child from his wonder, lest he be distracted chasing butterflies.
I believe that literature is the reflex expression and interpretation of social experience; that hence it must follow upon and not precede such experience.
This "social experience" is the deity of the Engineer. Everything outside of humanity is mere chaos, and man himself only has meaning by being part of the organic whole. Thus, literature is only valuable as an expression of social events.
I believe that the only way to make the child conscious of his social heritage is to enable him to perform those fundamental types of activity which makes civilization what it is.
I believe, therefore, in the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the centre of correlation.
I believe that this gives the standard for the place of cooking, sewing, manual training, etc., in the school.
I believe that the study of science is educational in so far as it brings out the materials and processes which make social life what it is.
The Engineer makes the school first and foremost a place of social training. Man only has value in his performance of socially-assigned roles. Outside of them there is no human dignity, no valuable knowledge, no beautiful art. School is like a factory: it enables the workers to take on their social roles. The schoolmaster has one important difference from the sweatshop foreman, though: in the end the foreman can point to his goods and say "behold, I at least made my customers happy." The schoolmaster has nothing to answer for him but broken souls.
I believe that the art of thus giving shape to human powers and adapting them to social service, is the supreme art; one calling into its service the best of artists; that no insight, sympathy, tact, executive power is too great for such service.
I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life.
Human beings, to the Engineers, are like ants. Except that, unlike ants they have this unfortunate tendency called individualism. Some waste their time staring off into the sunset, or climbing mountains, or displaying photographs of clouds without a suitably educational message underneath, or worshiping imaginary friends.
I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth.
Therefore, there is the role of special ants, the engineers, who maintain "proper social order," guide "social growth," who "stimulate and control." Their control is not most effective when it is punitive, rather they rule through isolation, carefully crafted assumptions and world-views. They're smarter than the rest of us. And, God help us. They have our children.
I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God.
-- John Dewey, "My Pedagogic Creed"
But who is this "true God" of Dewey? Is he the God who asked Adam to name the creatures, and gave him dominion over creation. Is he the same God who, when He needed to make a point to humanity turned to the rainbow, the mountaintop, the stormy sea, the wildflowers? Before him am I "wonderfully, fearfully made?" Is he the One who carved us in the palm of his hand?
No. The engineers may believe they serve God. Let us search our history, though. In it, in ancient Carthage, we find a people who considered their children their most precious resource. So precious in fact, that in worshiping Ba'al Hammon, sacrificing their most precious resource, they burnt their own children to death. Delenda est Carthago!
What they do is evil, and, by the grace of God I HATE IT.
Part 2 to follow soon.
