Every educator should have a selection of inspirational texts in his or her library. These could include substantial works like those by St Augustine of Hippo , Blessed John Henry Newman and Maria Montessori, to name but three.
Fewer people are aware of a much shorter piece on education by the English writer Dorothy L. Sayers. Miss Sayers is more famous for her fictional detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, and while these stories are a pleasant read, her essay on education ‘The Lost Tools of Learning’ is something which merits a wider audience.
Miss Sayers outlines just why, in her considered opinion, modern education has gone wrong. (She was writing in the 1940’s actually.) The text is attached to this piece above. Miss Sayers writes in a style which is elegant and informed – and, therefore, good to read. When compared to the often tortured prose and bullet-pointed notes of modern educational documents, Miss Sayers seems to be writing in another and more precise language.
Those who read this blog will wish, of course, to ‘take education seriously’ and read the essay for themselves. What is of value is some consideration of just how this essay can inform contemporary debates on the purposes of education.
I leave that to you to decide.
