C S Lewis quote on Education

. . . The basic principal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupil. That would be “undemocratic”. . . .Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially dept back, because the others would get a trauma . . .by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval’s attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT.

In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when “I’m as good as you” has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers – or should I say, nurses? – will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time of real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us.

A few days ago someone quoted C S Lewis in a thread. I can't find it and wondered if you wonderful people would help me out.

It was about Education and "Men Without Chests". A link to the whole thread would be great.

I posted this quote because Lewis is so great, he needs to be shared. "Screwtape" is no dummy either . . .

The essay you seek is titled "The Abolition Of Man," and is generally included in C. S. Lewis compendia. It's a goodie, one of the most trenchant pieces on modern "education," its dehumanizing tendencies, and the Man-over-men notion that's ever been written.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

I found it in a compendium called The Essential C. S. Lewis, mama. It might be available as a stand-alone publication, as well.

Lewis's critical and philosophical work has received less attention than his religious polemics and his fiction, but it's no less valuable. He represents and perpetuates an important thread of conviction that, in his time, was under heavy attack: the idea that there is a metaphysically given order of things which which all theorizing must be consistent, and which, in the main, must not be meddled with, for the sake of our lives and souls.

There's no one like Lewis writing today. He is much missed.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

A few days ago someone quoted C S Lewis in a thread. I can't find it and wondered if you wonderful people would help me out.
It was about Education and "Men Without Chests". A link to the whole thread would be great.
THIS thread was not posted "a few days ago," but it may be of interest:

Men Without Chests
Catholic exchange | 2/15/02 | by James Bemis
Posted on 2/20/02 9:02 AM Pacific by patent

And THIS thread about education was posted recently, and mentions C.S. Lewis, but NOT "Men Without Chests" -

Education and Democracy
The Screwtape Letters "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" para. 29, 32-34, pp. 164-168 | 1959 | C. S. Lewis
Posted on 6/17/02 9:00 PM Pacific by Harrison Bergeron

The essay you seek is titled "The Abolition Of Man," and is generally included in C. S. Lewis compendia...
From http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/lewis/abolition1.htm:

C.S. Lewis

THE ABOLITION OF MAN
or
Reflections on education with special
reference to the teaching of English in
the upper forms of schools
-- snip --
Chapter 1
MEN WITHOUT CHESTS
-- snip --
"...The operation of The Green Book and its kind is to produce what may be called Men without Chests. It is an outrage that they should be commonly spoken of as Intellectuals. This gives them the chance to say that he who attacks them attacks Intelligence. It is not so. They are not distinguished from other men by any unusual skill in finding truth nor any virginal ardour to pursue her. Indeed it would be strange if they were: a persevering devotion to truth, a nice sense of intellectual honour, cannot be long maintained without the aid of a sentiment which Gaius and Titius could debunk as easily as any other. It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.
And all the time—such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive', or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity'. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful..."

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