This is an excerpt from the conversation between Socrates and his friend Glaucon in 'The Republic" somewhere around 450 BC:
“Then if geometry compels us to view being, it concerns us; if becoming only, it does not concern us?
Yes, that is what we assert.
Yet anybody who has the least acquaintance with geometry will not deny that such a conception of the science is in flat contradiction to the ordinary language of geometricians.
How so?
They have in view practice only, and are always speaking, in a narrow and ridiculous manner, of squaring and extending and applying and the like—they confuse the necessities of geometry with those of daily life; whereas knowledge is the real object of the whole science.
Certainly, he said.”
Regardless of what the context of this quote is within the aim of "The Republic", it confirms to me that some of us were cheated during the years of our education in public school: the focus of the plan of teaching was 'in view of practice only', meaning that only the rules and theorems of geometry were taught and practiced, while the real implication onto life was not touched. Only those of the students who were blessed with what I would call "special vision" could evolve beyond the words of the teacher and develop a creative vision from this acquired knowledge. Specialization works counter such ability. Fractional knowledge of a subject channels the thinking rather than allowing free flight. And this is the trend of our education. As a result, a 'master of designing counter-clock threads' appears in the line of job seekers among the 'engineers'. I do realize that the amount of knowledge required today in a field at one time as basic as 'engineering' is incredible. But lacking that knowledge makes our young people only marginally productive or even effective in the practice. So, what do we do to counter the trend? We are indeed on the wrong path to retain supremacy among the people on this earth.
“Then if geometry compels us to view being, it concerns us; if becoming only, it does not concern us?
Yes, that is what we assert.
Yet anybody who has the least acquaintance with geometry will not deny that such a conception of the science is in flat contradiction to the ordinary language of geometricians.
How so?
They have in view practice only, and are always speaking, in a narrow and ridiculous manner, of squaring and extending and applying and the like—they confuse the necessities of geometry with those of daily life; whereas knowledge is the real object of the whole science.
Certainly, he said.”
Regardless of what the context of this quote is within the aim of "The Republic", it confirms to me that some of us were cheated during the years of our education in public school: the focus of the plan of teaching was 'in view of practice only', meaning that only the rules and theorems of geometry were taught and practiced, while the real implication onto life was not touched. Only those of the students who were blessed with what I would call "special vision" could evolve beyond the words of the teacher and develop a creative vision from this acquired knowledge. Specialization works counter such ability. Fractional knowledge of a subject channels the thinking rather than allowing free flight. And this is the trend of our education. As a result, a 'master of designing counter-clock threads' appears in the line of job seekers among the 'engineers'. I do realize that the amount of knowledge required today in a field at one time as basic as 'engineering' is incredible. But lacking that knowledge makes our young people only marginally productive or even effective in the practice. So, what do we do to counter the trend? We are indeed on the wrong path to retain supremacy among the people on this earth.
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