Michele Ledda
The Pull of Reality
Humanity has accumulated its knowledge, through millennia of struggles and discoveries, with no regard whatsoever for the nature of the child. On the contrary, education is the process whereby the child acquires a culture that is by definition heterogeneous to his nature. There is nothing natural in learning the multiplication tables, the alphabet, musical notation or the correct movements of tennis. Even if the way in which these are learnt can be more or less humane to children, the acquisition of knowledge is a cultural, as opposed to natural process.
A Teacher’s Life
In spite of this book’s title, which challenges the popular prejudice about teachers, its authors – novelist and editor Dave Eggers, veteran schoolteacher Nínive Clements Calegari and journalist Daniel Moulthrop – are not on teachers’ side.
