Our English Syllabus

I really found Lewis's piece on our English syllabus quite intriguing, provocative, and introspective. I found that Lewis made some very interesting points. The first thing that I think is interesting is how Lewis distinguishes between education and learning. Lewis describes learning as the process of training individuals to be human, and in essence to be good. Lewis also describes education. In describing education Lewis state is as the pursuit of knowledge centered around the individual as the agent, master, and the pupil. Lewis also goes in to a societal aspect of education and learning. Lewis states that both are required for a civilization to exist. Interestingly Lewis states this about why individuals work in society. Lewis says that we work for leisure. Leisure is in the end the objective for why we work. In a sense this is a very practical conclusion. In essence all work is geared towards progress and the desire for higher efficiency in every aspect of life. Tools, transportation, health, and technology are all changing at rapid rates in order to make life itself in a sense more full of leisure. Individuals in actuality work in a society that seeks high efficiency and greater ease and leisure in every required aspect.
A second interesting aspect Lewis brings out is the idea of class struggle inside of the education and learning circle. Lewis describes the idea that rich people enter into higher education, whereas poor people were stuck inside the simpleton world of trade jobs. I feel like Lewis is almost denigrating towards those who don't enter into higher education. I don't know if this is Lewis's intention, but it may also play into his bias as an extremely well educated man and his role as a college professor. Lewis goes on to describe how since no civilization can exist without both training and education, humanity must find a way to incorporate both of them into the lives of up coming generations.
This leads into the final idea expressed in Lewis's piece, which is the difficulty in the selection of which key pieces of reality to incorporate into education. Since the vault of knowledge is far to fast for one individual to learn, it must be decided what pieces truly connect together to give a comprehensive view of the subject. Lewis gives the analogy of a tree which must be trimmed just enough so that the integrity of the tree is not compromised.
In the arena of education we are truly only capable of doing our best and working our hardest to achieve a comprehensive system which actively prepares individuals to not only work in society, but to make it more efficient and improve on the old system.