>
> it goes far deeper than skinner and parsons, alas... if the goal of
> liberal education is to free the learner from the tyranny of being born at
> a particular place and time, then we are increasingly becoming the jailers
> of contemporary culture. not once in my own formal education was i exposed
> to the thoughts of some of the great minds of all time, including but not
> limited to -- duns scotus, james joyce, lao tsu, and if we exclude those
> folks who were merely mentioned, like aquinas and confucious, then the list
> stretches out endlessly...
>
> maybe we can free up the poor kids who are learning to be computer clerks
> by exposing them to boethius and sun tzu, and let their future bosses
> wallow in the watered down shallows of contemporary thought, instead of
> trying to play cultural catch up. the good news is that there are
> tremendous classics sites on the internet that can easily be used. here
> are three of my personal favorites:
>
> http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/zen/
>
> http://www.ccel.org/
<<taking notes vigorously>>
I hear horizons cracking! Neat. Thanks, Gary.
But, Tannen would say, exposure is not enough if the stance that one takes
toward what one is reading is ONLY critical, looking for weaknesses that
will then excuse you from knowing more than the weaknesses. I have a
teacher who asks when he introduces theories in his theories seminar, "so
what's SMART about this?" Completely turns my prejudices around. There
was something smart about behaviorism -- do we know what that was? The
smart stuff survives, denying, perhaps, its roots. That's how I introduce
leadership theories: the best insight of the previous (inadequate) theory
survives in its replacement, and the best of THAT survives in ITS
replacement, and so on. That's what's fascinating about theory-building;
it doesn't usually start de novo. But that is REAL news to students.
What's neat is to see them try to apply that "what's smart" framework to
other theories. Doesn't happen all the time, but the rush is great to me
as teacher when it does.
Back to Gary's point: it seems to me it is crucial that the computer
clerks bring a "what's smart here" stance to their readings. It's
exciting to you because you have that, but not everyone does from the
start.
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