Don't let the locomotive lead

Victor Hugo in Les Miserables says this (only in French; this translation by Isabel Florence Hapgood)

"... people have already begun to understand that, if there can be force in a boiler, there can be no force except in the brain; in other words, that which leads and drags on the world, is not locomotives, but ideas. Harness locomotives to ideas,—that is well done; but do not mistake the horse for the rider."

I suspect many times we want the technology to do the teaching or to find answers in technological solutions. But the technology should only be harnessed to drive some other greater and more profound purpose.

Unfortunately, I think we sometimes ignore a look at what that purpose is. It seems like many agencies think a large GDP is the end goal. Or simply that we're better than everyone else in the world. That's a pretty dismal way to look at success. I pine for something more. What is education supposed to do for you? For me? For the American Child?

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