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Single Idea 14848

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles ]

Full Idea

The educational system in large states will always be mediocre at best, for the same reason that the cooking in large kitchens is at best mediocre.

Gist of Idea

Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Human, All Too Human [1878], 467)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Human, All Too Human', ed/tr. Faber,Marion [Penguin 1994], p.222


A Reaction

I wish he had said what that 'same reason' is. Something to do with too many cooks, I suppose. Nothing seems harder than reaching a wide concensus on how the young should be educated. Like interior design by a committee.


The 18 ideas with the same theme [principles and values in educating the young]:

He spent public money on education, as it benefits the individual and the state [Protagoras, by Diodorus of Sicily]
Education is the greatest of human goods [Xenophon]
Children's games should channel their pleasures into adult activity [Plato]
Mathematics has the widest application of any subject on the curriculum [Plato]
Control of education is the key office of state, and should go to the best citizen [Plato]
To gain knowledge, turn away from the world of change, and focus on true goodness [Plato]
Dialectic is the highest and most important part of the curriculum [Plato]
Bad governments prevent discussion, and discourage the study of virtue [Plato]
Aristotle said the educated were superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead [Aristotle, by Diog. Laertius]
Books are endless, and study is wearisome [Anon (Ecc)]
Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius]
Communists want to rescue education from the ruling class [Marx/Engels]
We are not inspired by other people's knowledge; a sense of our ignorance motivates study [Peirce]
To learn something, you must know that you don't know [Frege]
Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God [Nietzsche]
Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens [Nietzsche]
Education is contrary to human nature [Nietzsche]
Learning is evolution in the brain [Dennett]