Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Aldous Huxley on Relationships

Monochrome portrait of Aldous Huxley sitting on a table, facing slightly downwards. 

Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) 




"How early do you start your science teaching?"



"We start it at the same time we start multiplication and division.  First lessons in ecology."

 

"Ecology?  Isn't that a bit complicated?" 
 

"That's precisely the reason why we begin with it.  Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very first that all living is relationship.  Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the village and the country around it.  Rub it in." 
 

"And let me add," said the Principal, "that we always teach the science of relationship in conjunction with the ethics of relationship.  Balance, give and take, no excesses---it's the rule of nature and, translated out of fact into morality, it ought to be the rule among people. [...]" 

 from Island by Aldous Huxley

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