blog (category: education)
eating the finger that points at the moon
... to point at the moon a finger is needed, but woe to those who take the finger for the moon.
-- D. T. Suzuki
That is why a theology of the Church has to begin with a consideration of the Church as the sign or sacrament of Christ and the kingdom he inaugurated, rather than the Church as an institution, but fidelity to Christ and to the kingdom of God that he embodies.
-- William Shannon, Seeking the Face of God
'[I]nstitutions create the needs and control their satisfaction, and, by so doing, turn the human being and her or his creativity into objects'.
Modern societies appear to create more and more institutions - and great swathes of the way we live our lives become institutionalized. 'This process undermines people - it diminishes their confidence in themselves, and in their capacity to solve problems... It kills convivial relationships. Finally it colonizes life like a parasite or a cancer that kills creativity.'
-- Mark K. Smith, ivan illich: deschooling, conviviality and the possibilities for informal education and lifelong learning
with quotes from Adult Education at the Crossroads, Matthias Finger and Jose Manuel Asun
I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of action over a life of consumption, on our engendering a lifestyle which will enable us to be spontaneous, independent, yet related to each other, rather than maintaining a lifestyle which only allows to make and unmake, produce and consume - a style of life which is merely a way station on the road to the depletion and pollution of the environment. The future depends more upon our choice of institutions which support a life of action than on our developing new ideologies and technologies.
-- Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
implicit complicity
Asserting support for arts in American schools, she reminded us that well-rounded future citizens will be necessary for continued successful competition with the rest of the world.
No one batted an eye.
Did you?
That we compete with the rest of the world -- and should continue to do so -- is inherent and assumed.
I hope our well-rounded future citizens realize we should more effectively cooperate.
insight, foresight, moresight
Been reading about learning lately, thanks much to discovering Seb's Open Research blog. I'm meant to be a teacher here at camp -- in the bunk and in the computer lab -- and I'm trying to figure out the best ways to learn from my campers and peers here as well.
A few good reads, first on some of the Enemies of Learning, by Charles Feltman.
Our inability to admit that we don't know
Julio Olalla: "to be a child is to live in awe of the discovery of domains of action whose existence we were not capable of even anticipating."
When knowing is so highly valued and not knowing devalued, I may assess that admitting I don't know something would cause others to devaule me. This can also prevent me from beginning the learning process.
Ignoring the body as a dimension of learning
New learning changes the body's physiology. Depending on what we learn, it may create changs in the neural structure of the brain, the electrochemistry of our nervou systems, even the shape of the body.
And another, an interview in eLearn Magazine with Don Norman, "the guru of workable technology."
I'm a big believer in motivating the student by getting them excited about the problem and then thrusting them into the problem before they're ready. They have to be unready in just the right amount. If they're too unready it's confusing and they give up.
-- Don Norman, Q&A with Don Norman