Thursday, June 5, 2008

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A wonder quote from Dewy (h.t. to Aaron Ghiloni)

“Recreation, as the word indicates, is recuperation of energy. No demand of human nature is more urgent or less to be escaped. The idea that the need can be suppressed is absolutely fallacious, and the Puritanic tradition which disallows the need has entailed an enormous crop of evils. If education does not afford opportunity for wholesome recreation and train capacity for seeking and finding it, the suppressed instincts find all sorts of illicit outlets, sometimes overt, sometimes confined to indulgence of the imagination. Education has no more serious responsibility than making adequate provision for enjoyment of recreative leisure; not only for the sake of immediate health, but still more if possible for the sake of its lasting effect upon habits of mind. Art is again the answer to this demand.”

Democracy and Education, Chapter 15

So remember to Re-create yourself and help those around you to get some for themselves. I keep thinking of street cleaners here in Kuwait who work for KD 20 or so a month and work from morning till night without resting. Many turn to what Dewey above aptly calls "illicit outlets" and the newspapers here scream about how society suffers.


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