No, this isn't a post about Napoleon Dynamite (that's not going to make any sense unless you've seen it...).
Rather, I'd like to point to a very interesting article by Walter Parker: Teaching Against Idiocy. To quote:
IDIOCY IS the scourge of our time and place. Idiocy was a problem for the ancient Greeks, too, for they coined the term. "Idiocy" in its original sense is not what it means to us today -- stupid or mentally deficient. The recent meaning is deservedly and entirely out of usage by educators, but the original meaning needs to be revived as a conceptual tool for clarifying a pivotal social problem and for understanding the central goal of education.
A must read for anyone interested in democracy and/or education.
Posted by Karl
January 14, 2005 12:06 PM