Local Prep School Overhauls Science Curriculum
Back to the classics, say teachers, headmaster
Big changes are underway at Phoenix's Classical Preparatory Academy, a charter school opened in 2003. Students already accustomed to reading ancient Greek epics and studying Latin will at last get a science curriculum that is drawn "from the heart of the liberal arts", in the words of their headmaster, Dr. Andrew Dits.
"There are some really cutting-edge publications out there that are changing the way we have traditionally thought about science as a part of the prep school curriculum," says Dr. Dits. "Music of the Spheres, Aether, and Earth-Shaking Poseidon aren't afraid to present truths about nature that left-wing university types are either blind to or wilfully covering up."
According to Ms. Elaine Reed, chair of the science department, the overhaul of the curriculum will be based upon some of the most important thinkers of the Western tradition, such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. "Western scientific thinking drove off the road into a ditch about four or five hundred years ago," she says, "by the insidious influence of Copernicus, and the subsequent self-centered 'philosophizing' of Rene Descartes."
Ms. Reed reports that the content of current courses will be overhauled on a basic level.
"Take eighth grade Earth Science, for example. We are going to totally redo the astronomy unit, taking Ptolemy's Almagest as our basic textbook. Our students will spend months learning how to calculate the epicycles and equants that make the circular geocentric universe a plausible alternative to modern models of the solar system."
What about the planets of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, invisible to the naked eye and thus not an original part of the Ptolemaic theory? "Basically, we can forget about those. If we can't see them, they must not be there. Or at least not that important."
Ms. Reed also reports that ninth grade biology will be recast as a "Bileology" class, with students studying the balance of the humours (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, choler, and blood) as the basis of human physiology. The 2-year physics curriculum will be, in her words, "Aristotelianized".
"For example, every 5-year old knows that heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects. Newton and his disciples have succeded in establishing the opposite opinion as dogma, citing something about 'universal gravitation'. Hokum. Aristotle teaches us that a greater presence of Earth in a body will make it seek the ground more rapidly. And 'inertia'--we can take that apart like a Lego castle. It is displaced Air that rushes in to push forward a ball that is thrown horizontally. "
When asked to respond to the charge that any of the claims of these nearly-universally rejected and derided theories could be refuted by the most basic of experiments, Headmaster Dits is unfazed.
"We actually plan to phase all forms of empirical observation out of the curriculum," he says. "The kind of positivist epistemology that gave us the experimental method is also responsible for such cultural degradation as filtered cigarettes, diet soda, and poll-driven politics. That's hardly what I would call progress."
Ms. Reed is quick to point out that hands-on lab work will not disappear entirely from the school. Twelfth grade Alchemy students will spend much of the coming year working in class to extract gold from everyday substances. "There's going to be a lot of learning going on around here next year," she concludes.
Back to the classics, say teachers, headmaster
Big changes are underway at Phoenix's Classical Preparatory Academy, a charter school opened in 2003. Students already accustomed to reading ancient Greek epics and studying Latin will at last get a science curriculum that is drawn "from the heart of the liberal arts", in the words of their headmaster, Dr. Andrew Dits.
"There are some really cutting-edge publications out there that are changing the way we have traditionally thought about science as a part of the prep school curriculum," says Dr. Dits. "Music of the Spheres, Aether, and Earth-Shaking Poseidon aren't afraid to present truths about nature that left-wing university types are either blind to or wilfully covering up."
According to Ms. Elaine Reed, chair of the science department, the overhaul of the curriculum will be based upon some of the most important thinkers of the Western tradition, such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. "Western scientific thinking drove off the road into a ditch about four or five hundred years ago," she says, "by the insidious influence of Copernicus, and the subsequent self-centered 'philosophizing' of Rene Descartes."
Ms. Reed reports that the content of current courses will be overhauled on a basic level.
"Take eighth grade Earth Science, for example. We are going to totally redo the astronomy unit, taking Ptolemy's Almagest as our basic textbook. Our students will spend months learning how to calculate the epicycles and equants that make the circular geocentric universe a plausible alternative to modern models of the solar system."
What about the planets of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, invisible to the naked eye and thus not an original part of the Ptolemaic theory? "Basically, we can forget about those. If we can't see them, they must not be there. Or at least not that important."
Ms. Reed also reports that ninth grade biology will be recast as a "Bileology" class, with students studying the balance of the humours (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, choler, and blood) as the basis of human physiology. The 2-year physics curriculum will be, in her words, "Aristotelianized".
"For example, every 5-year old knows that heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects. Newton and his disciples have succeded in establishing the opposite opinion as dogma, citing something about 'universal gravitation'. Hokum. Aristotle teaches us that a greater presence of Earth in a body will make it seek the ground more rapidly. And 'inertia'--we can take that apart like a Lego castle. It is displaced Air that rushes in to push forward a ball that is thrown horizontally. "
When asked to respond to the charge that any of the claims of these nearly-universally rejected and derided theories could be refuted by the most basic of experiments, Headmaster Dits is unfazed.
"We actually plan to phase all forms of empirical observation out of the curriculum," he says. "The kind of positivist epistemology that gave us the experimental method is also responsible for such cultural degradation as filtered cigarettes, diet soda, and poll-driven politics. That's hardly what I would call progress."
Ms. Reed is quick to point out that hands-on lab work will not disappear entirely from the school. Twelfth grade Alchemy students will spend much of the coming year working in class to extract gold from everyday substances. "There's going to be a lot of learning going on around here next year," she concludes.
posted by famulus_veritatis at 9:57 AM
1 Comments:
I usually have the exact same reaction to my own humor.
My family has the same as yours would.
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