Welcome back! I hope the first episode of this new blog was helpful and even enlightening!

In this second offering, I will go over some very rudimentary information about using logic in discussions. Then, we will dig a little deeper into logical fallacies, this week introducing red herring, slippery slope, circular reasoning, and to the stone arguments. I’ll also give you the first steps in countering or dealing with fallacies when you come across them.

As promised last week, we will discuss how American schooling transitioned from a mainly classical environment to the more de-intellectualized, vocational preparation it has largely become over the past century and a half. I have also added a personal note to the video to explain how and why I have become a student of the historical and philosophical foundations of education.

Also new is the Follow button in the sidebar to the right. While I will continue to notify folks of new posts on Facebook for a while, just clicking that button will keep you in the loop every time a new episode is published. Please share all this information with everyone you think might be interested in the 21st Century Lyceum.

And watch this space – in a few weeks, I will begin hosting guests in a podcast-like format (once I figure out how to do it…). I can’t wait for you to meet them!

Summary of video

  • Premises and conclusions
  • Validity v. veracity
  • Herrings, slopes, circles, and rocks
  • Proper parrying protocol
  • John’s big screw-up and why you have to endure the next section of video…
  • The classical schooling of the Founding Fathers
  • How the Prussians stole our thunder
  • How we still haven’t gotten our thunder back
  • The big takeaway = Jefferson and his peers (turn of 18th & 19th centuries) saw classical schooling as a necessary way to prep young folks to play their roles as citizens in a representative democracy. Mann and his peers (mid 19th century on) viewed education as preparation for roles as citizens of a developing industrial capitalist society. They were both right – for their respective times and places. But what about NOW?!?

 

Resources specific to this post

General resources that I enjoy (and hope you will, too)

  • A great introductory article about classical schooling
  • Khan Academy, Sal Khan’s online collection of courses for K-12 students. ( I’m currently working through AP Statistics, AP US History, and Geometry! ANYONE can take any of Sal’s courses for FREE.) My secret wish is that parents (mainly homeschooling families) can eventually use my 21CL blog and Sal’s Academy in conjunction to mold their kids into well- educated, thoughtful young people. Shh. Don’t tell anyone… 😉
  • Art of Manliness blog. If you visit Brett’s site, you’ll see that it’s a definite source of inspiration for this one.
  • Good Eats website. Alton Brown is another major influence. With any luck (and much study and improvement in my digital skills), this site will eventually smack slightly of this hit food show.
  • About Learning (4MAT) website. Bernice McCarthy has synthesized so many current ideas in teaching and learning that you MUST check out her 4MAT system.
    • 4MAT Guide – excellent intro to fundamentals and research
  • School in the Cloud, Sugata Mitra’s idea that won the 2013 TED Prize. Check out his TED talks here.
  • Aristotle’s Lyceum in Athens. And use Google Maps to see the sat pic of the archeological site. So cool that it’s on the same city block of the very modern buildings for the Greek National Conservatory, Children’s Museum, and Armed Forces Museum.