The Island Features Monday 19th October, 2009 11 bu Eymard de Wijeyeratne 30.00 (thirty) as a contribution for the cel- that was endowed on them. Halpe, who as our contemporary tra- as long as its limitations are recognised ebration of ‘Teachers Day”. Since it was versed the corridor where the photograph by those who use it. I call it a quasi-sci- here were several interesting arti- thought improper for the teachers to col- The Root of the Problem included in this article was taken, has ence because it is neither a pure science cles published in ‘The Island’ on the lect the money, prefects were asked to do Gunadheera Somapala when he refers this to say about education in Sri Lanka. that relies entirely on deductive inference Tsubject of free education and the so. A girl who had failed to bring the to ‘education bereft of Ethics” and the “Lawrence admired Yeats’ “delight in the nor a physical science where exact pre- invaluable contribution made by Dr. money was reprimanded by a prefect and “rat race to push students through exami- whole man – blood, imagination and intel- diction is possible and controlled labora- C.W.W. Kannangara towards achieving detained for half an hour after school nations” has correctly diagnosed the can- lect running together…Arising from the tory experiments can be performed, with- that end.Dr.B.J.C.Perera’s eulogy on hours. Meanwhile, a Boys’ school, not to cer that lies hidden behind the symptoms. concept of the ‘whole person’ is a view of out causing destruction. The hypotheses CWWK is an expression of the sublime be outdone, laid down a rule that the min- In a rush to emulate what we see as the human experience and development of economics are not falsifiable. In the gratitude of a man who publicly acknowl- imum contribution for celebrating progress in the West, even the institution of which the keynote is integration…The circumstances this task must be left in edges his debt to free education. At a time ‘Teachers Day” should be Rs. 60.00 (sixty). of marriage is being gradually reduced to current trend in Sri Lanka is quite other. the hands of persons who are not blinded when the hapless visit a hospital to find There is no doubt that the decline in a form of licensed fornication. Students, It is not integratory and holistic but utili- by personal predilections. One has a fun- that doctor’s are on strike, or wend their the standard of education in Sri Lanka school-leavers and doctored adults live on tarian, specialism-oriented and tending damental right to be naïve and act naive- way to what is inappropriately called the has been systematic. I use the word sys- a diet of aphorisms such as: “no free very strongly to compartmentalisation” ly, as long as one’s naivety is not a prod- channelled service of Hippocrates to find tematic, paradoxical though it may seem, lunches”, “level playing fields”, “engines (Ashley Halpe, University Education after uct of assuming that others are naïve. To that the doctor writes a prescription because the decline, which is an integral of growth”, “paradigm shifts’, “a majori- Fifty Years of Independence (Dialogue say on the one hand that free education is before they could fully disclose their ago- not provided by government but by the nising symptoms, Dr. Perera’s expression tax payer, as though one is making a new of gratitude is not mere lip service but discovery, is patented naivety. On the one of service to humanity. The articles other hand, to compare free education to he regularly writes in ‘The Island’ for the free lunches is to reduce economics to a guidance of readers is testimony to this string of clichés. The statement that service. Somapala Gunadheera’s analysis investment in education is investment in was as usual nicely nuanced in its sure From Free human capital incorporates an impres- grasp of all aspects of the subject. Eric J. sive metaphor because two unlike things de Silva’s transmission of the resurrected – human and capital are conjoined to cre- CWWK’s homily to the nation, on how ate an impression by enhancing meaning. posterity has debased the endowment he The problem with this metaphor is that it crafted on behalf of the people of Sri reduces education to a mechanically utili- Lanka, reveals how politicians and their tarian process that totally ignores the lackeys write their own epitaph’s on Education to intrinsic value of humanity and the cul- decaying monuments. An epitaph in hon- our of Sir Christopher Wren the architect tural values that are essential for its sus- of St. Paul’s Cathedral reads as follows: tenance. We must bear in mind that slav- “Si monumentum requiris, circumspice” ery too is investment in human capital. (If you seek a monument, look around The only value that economics recognises you). The social significance of an epi- is relative: price or opportunity cost. In Free Lunches this respect I can only echo a warning taph is that it must be written post- mortem by a third party in appreciation sounded by an economist. “For many of what a deceased man or woman has years I have been employed as a teacher done for the community. In this context From the Sublime to the Ridiculous of theoretical economics; I would like to Dr. B. J. C. Perera and the others like believe that I earn my living honestly, but those whom I have mentioned in this arti- I often have my doubts. I am concerned cle, have meaningfully served the commu- particularly for India and other develop- nity as living monuments to the legacy of ing countries, whose economic doctrines CWWK. The photograph included in this come to them mainly from England and article shows a number of my colleagues in English. Is what we are giving them at Peradeniya, who have served Sri Lanka helpful to their development? (Joan with honour in the Police, University, Robinson, Selected Writings, teaching Inland Revenue Department, Housing Economics, A Passage to India, p.199). Ministry, other government agencies and The aesthetic element in physical and international agencies. This photograph, pure science and the arts is a vital part of which was taken immediately after the the process of education. It is a process, general election of 1956, is a mock-ver- as Douglas Walatara once said, of teasing sion of the cabinet of Prime Minister S. out of or eliciting from one’s mind a dis- W. R. D. Bandaranayake. I have indicated cerned harmony between what we learn a few details that I can recall, regarding and the world we live in. By discerned the personal careers of my colleagues harmony I mean the fusion in one’s portrayed in this photograph. Any inac- awareness of the physical, the moral, the curacies or omissions regarding these transcendental and the aesthetic. A good details are due to my time-worn memory. example of the absence of such discerned A few names of those Ministers in harmony is found in Chinua Achebe’s SWRDB’s 1956 cabinet whom these gentle- (the well-known Nigerian writer) short men represented are given within brack- story titled ‘Dead Men’s Path’. The story ets. is about a young enthusiastic teacher, who is promoted as the headmaster of a Has Free Education Caused Social backward school. This young man, who Problems? uses his youthful and uninhibited energy My answer to this question is an to set up a modern school, enlists the unqualified ‘no’. I must say that I reaped assistance of his young wife to provide a the harvest of free education even though fitting landscape for this academy par I attended a grant-in-aid Catholic school excellence. One day he is horrified to see in . Though many of us resided an old woman hobbling across the in Colombo or its outskirts and therefore flowerbeds, which his wife has tended had access to facilities that were then not with loving care. On discovering traces of available to students in rural areas, our a footpath he orders it to be closed. The upbringing was cast in the mould of a village priest, an old man, tells the head- lower middle class family with limited master that this path had been in use income. Simple living and austerity were Standing, left to right: Dr. Frank de Silva former IGP (P.H. William de Silva), Ariya Rajakaruna, Professor of Sinhala, M. K. Samuel, Sid Perimpanayagam, Mano even before he was born: used by dead key features of our life. I would like to Perera, M.D.G. Jayawardene (- no monocle available). Seated, left to right: Hector Candappa, Attorney at-Law, Inland Revenue, self, Manopala relatives to depart, by ancestors to revisit make mention of the late Gaya Yakandawela (Prime Minister, S.W.R.D. B), Dharmasiri Senanayake, former Minister of Tourism (), Wimal Nawagamuwa CCS (Mrs. Wimala their old haunts and by children “coming to be born”. The headmaster belittles the Cumaranatunge who rendered unto Sri Wijewardene). On the ground, left to right: Jehan Rahim (Sinhala Marikkar), S. Nadana Civa, Inland Revenue. Lanka what belonged to it and to himself superstitious beliefs of the priest and the lustre of integrity and balanced offers to get the schoolboys to help in judgement. As a matter of pride, I would part of poor governance, has been engi- ty with a minority complex”, “besieged (NS) Vol. XXV-XXVI (1998-1999). building an alternative path. The follow- like to say that he was my class-mate neered by political witchcraft disguised mentality”, “majoritarian lust” and The quasi-science of economics is not ing morning the distraught headmaster from what was then called the Junior as programmes of reform. The problem is “empowering people”. All this cob-web- a dismal science since its application to finds the flower-beds smashed and the Prep right up to the first year in the manifold because the legislature is not bing is attributable to the fact that pure real life situations can yield useful results buildings destroyed. Western Classics department at the capable of making an input in debate science, physical science and the humani- University at Peradeniya. He may be when discussing measures to establish a ties have been neglected at the expense of counted as a case of a high rate of return sound system of education and the execu- the social sciences. We have seen how the to the system of free education. tive that is spawned from the tissue of the meaning of the principle of subsidiarity úfYAAAIAA w;sssfrss ®®®lhl®® aaaaa Though the direction of education in legislature is not capable of designing has been vulgarised in the name of the the school I attended was “westward ho”, and implementing an efficient system. A empowerment of people, with the institu- considerable attention was paid to instill- public servant who is competent and rein- tion of Provincial Councils. iEu i∫odu kj,sssfhkss aaaaa ing a sound system of values in every stu- forced with the tensile fibre of moral dis- Free education is not designed to dent, irrespective of race or religion. It is cernment will not be able to survive long empower people in the same destructive with a sense of regret and shame that I enough to implement a sound system of sense that fake degrees, doctorates and kjl;dkjl;d y;ly;laaa say that the standards in these schools education from top to bottom due to polit- professorships are acquired for a fistful of have declined to a deplorable level, in ical interference. Hence we get a mixed dollars. The fact that in Sri Lanka, the spite of their being managed by members bag of mediocrities in a bandwagon. The process of education is similar to that of of religious orders. Let us take the case of fault lies not with the principle of free stuffing and compacting offal-mash into a i;ssshss mqqqrduqq lssshjkss aaakaa fohlaaaaa a government Girls’ school that is admin- education but with those beneficiaries of market worthy sausage, does not detract istered by a member of a religious com- free education who run the system and from the merits of free education. • l%si%s%s%s%s a;aaaa =k==== s ssss lreKd l< uekj • ud˙hdj munity. Students were asked to bring Rs. others who have betrayed the beneficence Emeritus Professor of English, Ashley wck;daaaaa rKixysssss chk;daaaaa relu”aaaaa • b;ksssss aaaaa ug wjirhsssss • fodxldraaa k†h Found: Dorothy Parker poem reveals pain of rejection Wmd, sssss jk.isssss ˙hQQQQQ m%°m%%%% a aaaa l=ur==== nd,iQ˙hQQQQ Dorothy Parker had much to say life. ly intended to include Pollyanna, too, but • i≥qqqqq we|f.k i| weú†kaaaaa • lΩ j<Æ about the romantic misfortunes of Silverstein, who has included the changed her mind, feeling it to be too others but the celebrated wit was poem in a fresh edition of The personal. huqqkdqqq ud,kSSSSS Oïñl i,j;aaaaa r===== curiously silent about her own Uncollected Dorothy Parker, discovered He said he was convinced she wrote doomed love affair. the original copy in a huge collection of it. “Either someone stole Dorothy • w;rue† l|jrlqqq aaa manuscripts amassed by an eccentric, Parker’s typewriter, her typewriting, her ;j;a aaaa úfYaIdx.aaaa By Tom Leonard in New York millionaire collector named DeCoursey literary style and her memories, or this kqjkqqqq a aaaa r;akdhlaaaa Fales. is by her,” he said. Now a “lost” poem by the writer has The poem’s title refers to Pollyanna, /ila aaa iu. been discovered in which she lays bare the famously optimistic girl from chil- for the first time her feelings over a sad dren’s literature, while “getting the air” chapter in her life. was contemporary slang for being jilted. The New York writer had a brief but In the poem, Parker who died aged 73 - at least for her - significant affair in the in 1967 - acknowledges that she should early 1920s with Charles MacArthur, an have known her lover would not be loyal emerging playwright and notorious for long but that “gaily I’d given my iEu i∫∞u kksl=;aslss =;== aaa fõ' womaniser. heart away”. iEu i∫∞u kslss =;== a aa fõ' Both were married and MacArthur Insisting - perhaps unconvincingly Wmd,ss sss m%%ldYkhl%%% aaaaa was seeing various other women at the given what transpired - that she har- same time. When Parker found herself Dorothy19\Dorothy Parker: The New York writer boured no bitterness after the affair pregnant with his child, she had an abor- had a brief but - at least for her - significant ended, she concludes: “Tell him I never ñ, re'20

Nuwan tion. She sunk into depression and slit affair in the early 1920s with Charles MacArthur am sad - and please, Give him my love.” her wrists, the first of several supposed That last sentiment definitely carried suicide attempts during her life. Typed amateurishly on one page, it an “ironic undertone”, said Silverstein. Although Parker famously said of had languished unnoticed in a file of “He was the one who got away and she Designed by MacArthur: “How like me, to put all my Parker’s work among a 50,000-item col- spent the next 45 years of her life trying eggs into one bastard,” there had been lection which Fales presented to New to get over him.” no solid evidence until now that she had York University in 1957. The poem appeared around the time ever written about their relationship. In a remarkable piece of literary of the affair in a small private-circula- Previously published anonymously detective work, Silverstein, an expert on tion magazine published by Robert in an obscure magazine owned by a Parker’s poetry, noticed that the typing, Sherwood, Parker’s friend and fellow friend, Pollyanna Gets The Air can now layout and even a typing error in the member of the New York literary circle be attributed to the socialite, said Stuart date on Pollyanna exactly matched those known as the Algonquin Round Table. Silverstein, editor of a newly updated on typed poems which she contributed to anthology of her poetry. It is the only her first compilation, entitled Enough © The Telegraph Group piece of writing by Parker about the Rope. London 2009 affair, which had a lasting impact on her Silverstein believes she had original-