All school libraries should contain the classics

[Baron von Lotsov]

Try looking here:-



https://www.gutenberg.org/">https://www.gutenberg.org/

I just have done. One of the most famous 20th century economists is completely absent. He has written may books. That was simply my fist test of it, and the conclusion is, we need better than that.

[Barry]

Try looking here:-



https://www.gutenberg.org/">https://www.gutenberg.org/

I don't read much, but my wife does and I've sent her a link to that website. She must be able to find something there!

Thanks. :thup:

[papasmurf]

My god. This is a first. I'm going to give ps a  :hattip



It does of course rely on the classic in question being out of copyright. I suppose the argument is how classic is classic ...

Most of the classics are out of copyright.

[johnofgwent]

Try looking here:-



https://www.gutenberg.org/">https://www.gutenberg.org/

My god. This is a first. I'm going to give ps a  :hattip



It does of course rely on the classic in question being out of copyright. I suppose the argument is how classic is classic ...

[papasmurf]

Are you certain about that?

Try looking here:-



https://www.gutenberg.org/">https://www.gutenberg.org/

[Baron von Lotsov]

Actually, all the classics are on line, free and for nothing.

Are you certain about that?



I can find bits and bobs about, but it is patchy. If state schools acted in unison they would have serious buying power to negotiate for a private firm to provide the system. It's so much faster to click on a  hyperlink to another book reference than to shuffle through a massive physical library, get the book and flick to the page. See what I'm getting at? Computers can make things far more efficient, e.g. natural language searches such as 'give me all the names of British artists in the 17th century', and the like.

[Borchester]

Actually, all the classics are on line, free and for nothing.



As to their value I am not so sure.



Here is Plato's description  of the death of Socrates in the Phaedo. Don't try it at home. I knew a fellow once who ate hemlock leaves because he thought that they were marijuana and he was a dick. He end up nearly choking to death and crapping through the eye of a needle.



Plato however, describes matters differently...



 Crito made a sign to the servant, who was standing by; and he went out, and having been absent for some time, returned with the jailer carrying the cup of poison. Socrates said: You, my good friend, who are experienced in these matters, shall give me directions how I am to proceed. The man answered: You have only to walk about until your legs are heavy, and then to lie down, and the poison will act. At the same time he handed the cup to Socrates, who in the easiest and gentlest manner, without the least fear or change of colour or feature, looking at the man with all his eyes, Echecrates, as his manner was, took the cup and said: What do you say about making a libation out of this cup to any god? May I, or not? The man answered: We only prepare, Socrates, just so much as we deem enough. I understand, he said: but I may and must ask the gods to prosper my journey from this to the other world—even so—and so be it according to my prayer. Then raising the cup to his lips, quite readily and cheerfully he drank off the poison. And hitherto most of us had been able to control our sorrow; but now when we saw him drinking, and saw too that he had finished the draught, we could no longer forbear, and in spite of myself my own tears were flowing fast; so that I covered my face and wept, not for him, but at the thought of my own calamity in having to part from such a friend. Nor was I the first; for Crito, when he found himself unable to restrain his tears, had got up, and I followed; and at that moment, Apollodorus, who had been weeping all the time, broke out in a loud and passionate cry which made cowards of us all. Socrates alone retained his calmness: What is this strange outcry? he said. I sent away the women mainly in order that they might not misbehave in this way, for I have been told that a man should die in peace. Be quiet, then, and have patience. When we heard his words we were ashamed, and refrained our tears; and he walked about until, as he said, his legs began to fail, and then he lay on his back, according to the directions, and the man who gave him the poison now and then looked at his feet and legs; and after a while he pressed his foot hard, and asked him if he could feel; and he said, No; and then his leg, and so upwards and upwards, and showed us that he was cold and stiff. And he felt them himself, and said: When the poison reaches the heart, that will be the end. He was beginning to grow cold about the groin, when he uncovered his face, for he had covered himself up, and said—they were his last words—he said: Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt? The debt shall be paid, said Crito; is there anything else? There was no answer to this question; but in a minute or two a movement was heard, and the attendants uncovered him; his eyes were set, and Crito closed his eyes and mouth.



Such was the end, Echecrates, of our friend; concerning whom I may truly say, that of all the men of his time whom I have known, he was the wisest and justest and best.

[papasmurf]

These days a school is lucky to have a library let alone one with books.

[Baron von Lotsov]

Or they could read Harry Redknapp's autobiography, it's really good !

They should not expect a job in the future then.



You see manual jobs will be phased out, so the only currency in earning money will be mental ability.

[Wiggles]

Or they could read Harry Redknapp's autobiography, it's really good !

[Baron von Lotsov]

I mean the great books throughout history, right back to the Greeks and Romans. Some are in Latin, but the school could provide a translation. We need schools to contain those books of the Enlightenment, the classic books in economics like Adam Smith. We need the philosophers and other thinkers throughout the years. It's unlikely the curriculum could ever possibly teach the slightest fraction of the knowledge and wisdom contained in these books but it should be there for the taking. It was one thing that was denied to me during my education, right up until the last school I went to, which at least had some good books in it.



What we could do as a country is to do it online, so the school pays a fee to the publishers and in return they loan the books out for the subscription. This would mean the library could contain millions of books at no extra cost. A further point is that schools should allot time to the students to pursue their own reading and area of study, given the books to do so. Making the book electronic means this is far easier to do, e.g. if Adam smith mentions a reference to another classic text then one could simply hyperlink to it, as this would also be available in the library. Then the kids could write essays on the knowledge they have acquired from their own private study. It would mean each kid has the opportunity of learning something different from the next kid, hence in the world of work, if one person does not know the answer then someone will, except in the case where they all don't know the same stuff (standard curriculum).