Reviews

(The following review was first published in SIGHT Magazine – https://sightmagazine.com.au/books/books-and-not-or-with-restoring-a-breadth-of-learning/)

It’s almost cliche to speak of our “polarised” society, yet what’s a better word for it? “Conflicted?” “Conflicted” speaks of a range of opposing views. But in our polarising world the trend is to align our approach to life, politics, even education against a single opposite way, think: progressive NOT conservative; secular NOT religious, or vice versa. One cancels the other. It is affecting our children.

Into this divided educational arena comes a book of balm from Paul L. Burgis reflecting on more than 40 years as a teacher, from Zimbabwe to the UK, to Innaburra, NSW, AND now as the long standing principal at Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) in Sydney, Australia.

“AND, NOT, OR, WITH: The good in education” reflects deeply on better ways to educate from K to 12 by engaging us in a conversation about ideas that are shaping our children’s futures. Transparent WITH his deeply thought biblical theology, Burgis especially invites parents and teachers, to step off their treadmills for a moment, long enough to think about the roots and branches of the reigning ideas that inform the way our various schools approach student learning. Ideas form the next generations, but he says the secular West has learned to prefer “the new” as much better than “the old.” In effect, that approach cancels the old, eclipses traditions, overlooks wisdom tried and true.

Burgis writes, “What we really require is the wisdom to know when to use NOT, and when to use AND, OR or WITH. A good education seeks to build that wisdom in students. They don’t just learn critical thinking by being taught the attitude and skill of deconstruction. To read a book that deconstructs an idea is to feel powerful, yet what is to be reconstructed in its place?”

The three sections of AND, NOT, OR, WITH move from his summary of the ideas shaping education, to what might be if we use the four conjunctions in our teaching of them. The final chapters show the practical outcomes of this on various classroom subject matter in his experience.

In Burgis’s understanding, “ . . . the purpose of education is to learn to love.” Learning to love requires teachers who are intentional about what is good. Intentional teachers understand a student can learn meaningful information AND compare old and new ideas, AND develop a noble character, AND construct their own learning goals. They do NOT need to get stuck in a contemporary frame of reference as the only way of seeing the world. He suggests the best teachers include practical wisdom in the classroom AND/OR at home. The irony is that in an education environment dominated by secular thought, a religious principal is encouraging greater breadth of learning.

Burgis sweeps the reader into accessible reflections on Aristotle’s ethics and Jesus’ Gospel, the reduction of thought in Nietzsche, Heidegger, Rosenberg and many other modern thinkers, and the corrective power of mid-twentieth century philosophers Michael Polanyi, Alasdair MacIntyre and later, Charles Taylor. In the middle section the book hangs on good grammar: applying the four conjunctions: and, not or, with, while assisting students to learn critical thinking, the ability to analyse what they read before forming their opinions. But NOT cancelling those who think differently. And NOT eliminating the student’s ability to discern whom to trust, whom she can journey WITH

“The focus of this book is how we assist young people to develop their thinking skills and to be persons,” writes Burgis. And he longs for us to discover that what we ask young people to think and do is where real teaching and learning happens.