06-09-2010, 02:19 AM
I get your drift Jona, and also know that there is nothing personal in our debates when we are on opposing sides. 
Sometimes i am happy that i just need to teach world-history to young secondary schoolkids after having earned my Ba, that i just need to instill in them the curiosity in times long gone, some of the knowledge about those times, to make them critical and attentive about their surroundings, their culture, their thoughts, politics in general et cetera.
To make them see history CAN be fun, mesmerising, interesting. That history can help them relate better to the actions and happenings of these times. That large scale social problems have their own history and momentum.
I adhere to your statement of over specialising on a subject, to the closure of libraries due to mismanagement and to the downfall in quality of scholarship and education worldwide. The downfall of Universities is a worldwide phenomenon, but the Latin on diplomas is just the thing the Universities are NOT interested in at all. Universities these days do not support or feed the middle class as you put it, thats the HBO system here in the Netherlands.
The problem with education in the Netherlands is that during the late 80s and well into the 90s secondary as well as higher education has been systematically destroyed by managers, economists, as well as multiple governments which seem to want non-critical citizens only thinking about their own purse and wellbeing.
Educational reforms have downgraded all educational forms in the Netherlands. In the secondary schools the learning of skills has become more important than the gaining of knowledge, the teacher needs to be more of a class manager than a true teacher, the spirit is one of: let them sort everything out for themselves and only give support when they ask for it....... has anyone ever seen someone in puberty asking any advice from any adult ?
Same at Universities, where during the 80s all teachers *by that i mean the teachers who knew how to teach !! were sacked, and now we are left with scholars who can not even explain their own speciality, simply because they lack a lot of social skills you need when teaching people who just have left secondary school.
Lectures are increasingly vague, uninteresting and uncoördinated. That notwithstanding the few profs who do know how to teach and are still doing that with great results....
So we are not that far apart i think, and well, wheter or not the University of Leiden will keep on handing out diplomas in Latin as well as other languages, I for one was happy to make a statement in Roman military kit, because If i had my way.......................................................... :twisted:
M.VIB.M.
Sometimes i am happy that i just need to teach world-history to young secondary schoolkids after having earned my Ba, that i just need to instill in them the curiosity in times long gone, some of the knowledge about those times, to make them critical and attentive about their surroundings, their culture, their thoughts, politics in general et cetera.
To make them see history CAN be fun, mesmerising, interesting. That history can help them relate better to the actions and happenings of these times. That large scale social problems have their own history and momentum.
I adhere to your statement of over specialising on a subject, to the closure of libraries due to mismanagement and to the downfall in quality of scholarship and education worldwide. The downfall of Universities is a worldwide phenomenon, but the Latin on diplomas is just the thing the Universities are NOT interested in at all. Universities these days do not support or feed the middle class as you put it, thats the HBO system here in the Netherlands.
The problem with education in the Netherlands is that during the late 80s and well into the 90s secondary as well as higher education has been systematically destroyed by managers, economists, as well as multiple governments which seem to want non-critical citizens only thinking about their own purse and wellbeing.
Educational reforms have downgraded all educational forms in the Netherlands. In the secondary schools the learning of skills has become more important than the gaining of knowledge, the teacher needs to be more of a class manager than a true teacher, the spirit is one of: let them sort everything out for themselves and only give support when they ask for it....... has anyone ever seen someone in puberty asking any advice from any adult ?
Same at Universities, where during the 80s all teachers *by that i mean the teachers who knew how to teach !! were sacked, and now we are left with scholars who can not even explain their own speciality, simply because they lack a lot of social skills you need when teaching people who just have left secondary school.
Lectures are increasingly vague, uninteresting and uncoördinated. That notwithstanding the few profs who do know how to teach and are still doing that with great results....
So we are not that far apart i think, and well, wheter or not the University of Leiden will keep on handing out diplomas in Latin as well as other languages, I for one was happy to make a statement in Roman military kit, because If i had my way.......................................................... :twisted:
M.VIB.M.
Bushido wa watashi no shuukyou de gozaru.
Katte Kabuto no O wo shimeyo!
H.J.Vrielink.
Katte Kabuto no O wo shimeyo!
H.J.Vrielink.
