Climbing Parnassus - 0 - Introduction
Introduction
Quote
Parnassus (for the Greeks) pointed to those treasures bestowed by the muses ... And among those gifts most sought was the civilizing, cultivating boon of eloquence, of right and beautiful expression.
Notes
🔥 "Why, in the age of the Internet and the global economy, dwell upon the words and deeds of people long dead who spoke and wrote in tongues equally dead?" This book looks to answer that question and to make the case that learning Greek and Latin, or, at least, reading translations of the classic Greek and Latin works, is worth doing.
🔥 In the world of education today, we care more about what's new and what's now, not the old. But we're often following shallow trends that quickly become dated. We've lost our capacity for depth. "The super-annuated, ever-changing mind cannot speak to the whole of life ... It cannot answer questions it long ago lost the wisdom to ask."
🔥 New innovations in education have a belittling view of people. It treats us as "masses to be housed and fed, not minds and souls seeking something beyond ourselves."
🔥 We don't have a sense for what education is really for, nor for the things that are actually worth knowing. We should look to the past for a guide and to see some of the things we've been missing, or things we have lost.
🔥 There have been some modern critiques of education that highlight the decline of basic knowledge. Though appeals for reform are too often politically charged. Probably because it can be a highly charged issue with a lot at stake.
🔥 "Embedded within any course of study lie assumptions about what people ought to know, and about human nature itself. Are we Man or Machine?" What are our ideals for education, or for the ideal type of human being? It has to be more than "smoothly cut cogs in the elaborate machine we call the 'global economy.'"
🔥 The author is not looking to persuade policy makers or make a case for educational reform, however. His aim is to encourage us to "recommit ourselves individually to a rich and humane heritage long neglected."
🔥 Classical education has traditionally focused on learning Greek and Latin, as well as the history, philosophy and literature of the Greek and Roman worlds. And for the author, that is the proper understanding. It's the study of Greek and Latin and the civilizations from which they arose.
🔥 But today the word 'classical' isn't understood the same way. "To many home schoolers, 'classical education' simply means the opposite of whatever is going on in those dreaded public schools."
🔥 The benefits of classical education aren't tangible or measurable the way that vocational training is. With vocational training, you either acquire the skills or you don't. It's not as cut and dry with classical education. And not only is the idea of acquiring virtue (instead of a skill) less tangible, it's also not the case that knowledge of the classical world, by itself, will create virtue.
🔥 Part of understanding classical education is to go back to a more traditional definition of the word culture. Culture here refers to "high culture." A cultural achievement is one that elevates. But this definition implies that someone's art can be better than someone else's. This can come across as offensive or elitist. "But," says the author, "some judgments cannot be made by a show of hands. The majority doesn't always rule."
🔥 However, as elitist as this may sound, "no one with the requisite ability need be left out. Parnassus can be scaled by anyone with intelligence and curiosity who is also possessed of a doggedness for detail."
🔥 Finally, you don't need to learn Greek and Latin to have a classical education, but it is still highly recommended.
Thoughts
Climbing Parnassus is one of the top books you'll see recommended if you look into classical education. I started getting interested in it since I didn't love university, and I actually dropped out after about a year and half. Then I started simply reading books on my own out of my own interest and found that to be a lot more fun.
Classical education struck a chord since it's based more on reading books, and it's something that you can pursue more independently. Also, the movement behind it (though it can have some issues of its own) was validating to my experience of education by pointing out many of the things that are wrong or missing from our current system.
Classical education does seem to advocate or imply some interesting - and maybe counter-cultural(?) - ideas. Such as, not all art is created equal. Some art, some books, are better than others, and more worth our time to learn from and study. There are the so-called 'Great Books' that are foundational to our culture and that we should prioritize and continue to revisit.
Anyway, these are some of the ideas that this book is setting out to explore. Since I've been going through a kind of classical education reading list, I thought it would be worthwhile to include this one to get a better sense of what classical education is all about.