college education
college education
I am harping on about my pet obsession today – what a crying shame it is that poetry is so neglected in today’s world. In almost every field – education is but one – poetry is sidelined or even relegated to the back row, so to speak, as one of the “minor arts”. Those who teach poetry properly – that is, structure, technique, elegance etc are indeed few in numbers. Most, I surmise, forced to teach it because they are obliged to, know little enough about it themselves and hence impart it with little feeling and no enthusiasm.
I do not know whether this is anything new. I can recall myself, three hundred years ago, being obliged to learn enormous chunks of “The Lady of Shallot” off by heart and recite it to the class. What should have been an enjoyable exercise was reduced, I am afraid, to the level of a boring and unpleasant chore, remembered without pleasure for over fifty years if not three hundred ! In my view, poetry is one of the civilizing arts, fully capable of inducing in the reader a great range of emotions, as well as introducing him or her to beauty, bravery, chivalry, excitement and much else beside.
Professor Stephen Hawking has recently stated, if I have read him correctly, that because of society’s emphasis on the sciences, our pace of technological advance is ever quickening, and with it our gobbling up of earth’s resources. Oil is but one glaring example. There are many others. Professor Hawking predicts that we shall have exhausted our stock of earth’s resources within one hundred years at the present rate of consumption, let alone a rate which is constantly increasing. Simultaneously, all the less desirable attributes of mankind, such as the seven deadly sins appear to be increasing exponentially. I am sure there is a link. This is what happens when people value greed, envy and lust above love. One has but to read the press or watch television news. Like Professor Hawking, who apparently believes man will have to form colonies on another planet in order to survive as a species, I believe this phenomenon is totally unsustainable. We shall be forced into wars over dwindling resources with more and more effective weapons of mass destruction, exacerbated by the uncontrolled growth of the human population of earth. Surely, is this not ultimately because of the relative unimportance we attribute to the arts in general as opposed to the sciences ?
Technology cannot teach love. The Arts can.
I would like to think that there is an alternative to walking away from the ruins of Mother Earth.
That alternative is to stop worrying about our constant technological advance – after all, this is simply another form of greed – and concentrate instead on making ourselves individually and collectively more civilized. Let us attempt to change our group behaviour. To summarize, we should be encouraging the Arts and Humanities, not the Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics. Let us rather encourage the appreciation of beauty, and values like love,liberty, justice, bravery, chivalry, and thrift. Let us take the vast amount of money we spend annually on futile exercises to build more deadly and technologically advanced weapons of war and spend it instead on promoting food sufficiency, health, and above all, decent values. Not for nothing does Christ implore us to love God and our neighbour. It is really plain common sense, and has nothing to do with whether or not you happen to believe in Christ.
Poetry can play a huge role in this.
Few art forms can express feelings as well as poetry does, and certainly few art forms can better propagate the civilizing values of which I speak. Consider this :
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever (from Book 1 of Endymion)
by John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
Point made, I think !
I am harping on about my pet obsession today – what a crying shame it is that poetry is so neglected in today’s world. In almost every field – education is but one – poetry is sidelined or even relegated to the back row, so to speak, as one of the “minor arts”. Those who teach poetry properly – that is, structure, technique, elegance etc are indeed few in numbers. Most, I surmise, forced to teach it because they are obliged to, know little enough about it themselves and hence impart it with little feeling and no college punjab india enthusiasm.
I do not know whether this is anything new. I can recall myself, three hundred years ago, being obliged to learn enormous chunks of “The Lady of Shallot” off by heart and recite it to the class. What should have been an enjoyable exercise was reduced, I am afraid, to the level of a boring and unpleasant chore, remembered without pleasure for over fifty years if not three hundred ! In my view, poetry is one of the civilizing arts, fully capable of inducing in the reader a great range of emotions, as well as mba college india introducing him or her to beauty, bravery, chivalry, excitement and much else beside.
Professor Stephen Hawking has recently stated, if I have read him correctly, that because of society’s emphasis on the sciences, our pace of technological advance is ever quickening, and with it our gobbling up of earth’s resources. Oil is but one glaring example. There are many others. Professor Hawking predicts that we shall have exhausted our stock of earth’s resources within one hundred years at the present rate of consumption, let alone a rate which is constantly increasing. Simultaneously, all the less desirable attributes mba college in punjab of mankind, such as the seven deadly sins appear to be increasing exponentially. I am sure there is a link. This is what happens when people value greed, envy and lust above love. One has but to read the press or watch television news. Like Professor Hawking, who apparently believes man will have to form colonies on another planet in order to survive as a species, I believe this phenomenon is totally unsustainable. We shall be forced into wars over dwindling resources with more and more effective weapons of mass destruction, exacerbated by the uncontrolled growth of the mba college in india human population of earth. Surely, is this not ultimately because of the relative unimportance we attribute to the arts in general as opposed to the sciences ?
Technology cannot teach love. The Arts can.
I would like to think that there is an alternative to walking away from the ruins of Mother Earth.
That alternative is to stop worrying about our constant technological advance – after all, this is simply another form of greed – and concentrate instead on making ourselves individually and collectively more civilized. Let us attempt to change our group behaviour. To summarize, we should mba college india be encouraging the Arts and Humanities, not the Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics. Let us rather encourage the appreciation of beauty, and values like love,liberty, justice, bravery, chivalry, and thrift. Let us take the vast amount of money we spend annually on futile exercises to build more deadly and technologically advanced weapons of war and spend it instead on promoting food sufficiency, health, and above all, decent values. Not for nothing does Christ implore us to love God and our neighbour. It is really plain common sense, and has nothing to do with whether or not you happen college punjab india to believe in Christ.
Poetry can play a huge role in this.
Few art forms can express feelings as well as poetry does, and certainly few art forms can better propagate the civilizing values of which I speak. Consider this :
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever (from Book 1 of Endymion)
by John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the mba college punjab india earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that college punjab india we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
Point made, I think
college education : Civilized Values and Poetry
college education
college education
I am harping on about my pet obsession today – what a crying shame it is that poetry is so neglected in today’s world. In almost every field – education is but one – poetry is sidelined or even relegated to the back row, so to speak, as one of the “minor arts”. Those who teach poetry properly – that is, structure, technique, elegance etc are indeed few in numbers. Most, I surmise, forced to teach it because they are obliged to, know little enough about it themselves and hence impart it with little feeling and no enthusiasm.
I do not know whether this is anything new. I can recall myself, three hundred years ago, being obliged to learn enormous chunks of “The Lady of Shallot” off by heart and recite it to the class. What should have been an enjoyable exercise was reduced, I am afraid, to the level of a boring and unpleasant chore, remembered without pleasure for over fifty years if not three hundred ! In my view, poetry is one of the civilizing arts, fully capable of inducing in the reader a great range of emotions, as well as introducing him or her to beauty, bravery, chivalry, excitement and much else beside.
Professor Stephen Hawking has recently stated, if I have read him correctly, that because of society’s emphasis on the sciences, our pace of technological advance is ever quickening, and with it our gobbling up of earth’s resources. Oil is but one glaring example. There are many others. Professor Hawking predicts that we shall have exhausted our stock of earth’s resources within one hundred years at the present rate of consumption, let alone a rate which is constantly increasing. Simultaneously, all the less desirable attributes of mankind, such as the seven deadly sins appear to be increasing exponentially. I am sure there is a link. This is what happens when people value greed, envy and lust above love. One has but to read the press or watch television news. Like Professor Hawking, who apparently believes man will have to form colonies on another planet in order to survive as a species, I believe this phenomenon is totally unsustainable. We shall be forced into wars over dwindling resources with more and more effective weapons of mass destruction, exacerbated by the uncontrolled growth of the human population of earth. Surely, is this not ultimately because of the relative unimportance we attribute to the arts in general as opposed to the sciences ?
Technology cannot teach love. The Arts can.
I would like to think that there is an alternative to walking away from the ruins of Mother Earth.
That alternative is to stop worrying about our constant technological advance – after all, this is simply another form of greed – and concentrate instead on making ourselves individually and collectively more civilized. Let us attempt to change our group behaviour. To summarize, we should be encouraging the Arts and Humanities, not the Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics. Let us rather encourage the appreciation of beauty, and values like love,liberty, justice, bravery, chivalry, and thrift. Let us take the vast amount of money we spend annually on futile exercises to build more deadly and technologically advanced weapons of war and spend it instead on promoting food sufficiency, health, and above all, decent values. Not for nothing does Christ implore us to love God and our neighbour. It is really plain common sense, and has nothing to do with whether or not you happen to believe in Christ.
Poetry can play a huge role in this.
Few art forms can express feelings as well as poetry does, and certainly few art forms can better propagate the civilizing values of which I speak. Consider this :
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever (from Book 1 of Endymion)
by John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
Point made, I think !
I am harping on about my pet obsession today – what a crying shame it is that poetry is so neglected in today’s world. In almost every field – education is but one – poetry is sidelined or even relegated to the back row, so to speak, as one of the “minor arts”. Those who teach poetry properly – that is, structure, technique, elegance etc are indeed few in numbers. Most, I surmise, forced to teach it because they are obliged to, know little enough about it themselves and hence impart it with little feeling and no college punjab india enthusiasm.
I do not know whether this is anything new. I can recall myself, three hundred years ago, being obliged to learn enormous chunks of “The Lady of Shallot” off by heart and recite it to the class. What should have been an enjoyable exercise was reduced, I am afraid, to the level of a boring and unpleasant chore, remembered without pleasure for over fifty years if not three hundred ! In my view, poetry is one of the civilizing arts, fully capable of inducing in the reader a great range of emotions, as well as mba college india introducing him or her to beauty, bravery, chivalry, excitement and much else beside.
Professor Stephen Hawking has recently stated, if I have read him correctly, that because of society’s emphasis on the sciences, our pace of technological advance is ever quickening, and with it our gobbling up of earth’s resources. Oil is but one glaring example. There are many others. Professor Hawking predicts that we shall have exhausted our stock of earth’s resources within one hundred years at the present rate of consumption, let alone a rate which is constantly increasing. Simultaneously, all the less desirable attributes mba college in punjab of mankind, such as the seven deadly sins appear to be increasing exponentially. I am sure there is a link. This is what happens when people value greed, envy and lust above love. One has but to read the press or watch television news. Like Professor Hawking, who apparently believes man will have to form colonies on another planet in order to survive as a species, I believe this phenomenon is totally unsustainable. We shall be forced into wars over dwindling resources with more and more effective weapons of mass destruction, exacerbated by the uncontrolled growth of the mba college in india human population of earth. Surely, is this not ultimately because of the relative unimportance we attribute to the arts in general as opposed to the sciences ?
Technology cannot teach love. The Arts can.
I would like to think that there is an alternative to walking away from the ruins of Mother Earth.
That alternative is to stop worrying about our constant technological advance – after all, this is simply another form of greed – and concentrate instead on making ourselves individually and collectively more civilized. Let us attempt to change our group behaviour. To summarize, we should mba college india be encouraging the Arts and Humanities, not the Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics. Let us rather encourage the appreciation of beauty, and values like love,liberty, justice, bravery, chivalry, and thrift. Let us take the vast amount of money we spend annually on futile exercises to build more deadly and technologically advanced weapons of war and spend it instead on promoting food sufficiency, health, and above all, decent values. Not for nothing does Christ implore us to love God and our neighbour. It is really plain common sense, and has nothing to do with whether or not you happen college punjab india to believe in Christ.
Poetry can play a huge role in this.
Few art forms can express feelings as well as poetry does, and certainly few art forms can better propagate the civilizing values of which I speak. Consider this :
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever (from Book 1 of Endymion)
by John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the mba college punjab india earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that college punjab india we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.
Point made, I think