[Clover] issue104 by 辰

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104. "It is primarily through formal education that a culture tries to perpetuate the ideas it favors and discredit the ideas it fears."
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Formal education enables us to get knowledge so that we have abilities to operate machines in practical ways and we are inspired to think, imagine in abstract ways. With regard to this, considering formal education as only a tool perpetuating the ideas culture favors and discrediting the ideas culture fears is a bit erroneous.

Firstly, the author may be right in some aspects. As for the students who are taking elementary level of formal education, they may still have not established a complete system of theory or a view of the world which is objective enough. Therefore, these children have little ability to question or doubt the correctness of which they have been taught so that their inside worlds are vulnerable to the ideas, values, and principles with which are indoctrinated to them. Hence it is possible to perpetuate the ideas some culture favors and discredit the ideas some culture fears by formal educations primarily. During the World War II, German changed the formal education system of France into their style after they had invaded France, trying to implant German culture into French children. As a result, French was taken placed by German in class and this situation had been lasting until German was defeated by allied forces in 1944.

However, the appliance above obviously has a long way to achieve the goal of formal education. As is mentioned above, formal education help the students develop both the ability of working with machines and that of skepticism and critical analysis, through the process of which students will no longer serve as the receptacle aimlessly or blindly, but rather form their own systems of value and will tend to challenge established point of views. One of the greatest physical scientists, Galileo, was famous for overthrowing the law of falling bodies built by Aristotle. When he learned the physics of Aristotle at the University of Padua in which he received formal education, he questioned Aristotle’s approach to physics and over the course of his life, Galileo tried to refute the concepts of the law that had been in place for over 1900 years and finally succeeded in proving that the speed of falling bodies is proportional to their density not their weight.

In addition, there lies one more method, law, by which cultures penetrate the ideas it favors and discredit the ideas it fears. Since every one of us must obey the law undoubtedly to avoid being pronounced sentence upon, to formulate relevant law seems to be better access to the goal of culture mentioned in the topic. Bruno, the founder of the heliocentric theory, ever had a debate against the Catholic Faith, holding opinions contrary to his. As those who hold erroneous opinions about Christ were powerful political figures in the Church, Bruno was quickly turned over to the secular authorities and was at last burnt at the stake.

All in all, it may be primary through formal education that a culture tries perpetuate the ideas it favors and discredit the ideas it fears with respect to the stage just before higher education and besides, law is probably another effective method to achieve the same goal.