[lit-ideas] Re: Our Superficial Scholars
- From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:32:32 +0900
Of course not. But those who teach wisdom must eat, and those who support
them consider the practicalities involved.
John
On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 1:53 AM, Torgeir Fjeld <torgeir_fjeld@xxxxxxxx>wrote:
> John wrote,
>
> > I do agree. I am just concerned that those who dislike
> > discussion of
> > outcomes are increasingly finding themselves preaching to a
> > like-minded
> > choir instead of persuading those who, at the end of the
> > day, wind up paying
> > the piper.
> >
>
> Whenever I meet someone who takes the effort to argue against outcomes
> based education I am happy and a tad bit surprised as those who take that
> position are threatened with extinction. No offense, John, but arguing /for/
> OBE is common and simple. Wisdom is not a commodity to be traded like sugar
> or automobiles.
>
> -tor
>
> > On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 6:14 AM, Torgeir Fjeld <torgeir_fjeld@xxxxxxxx
> >wrote:
> >
> > > Robert Paul wrote:
> > >
> > > John McCreery:
> > > > > Democratizing the
> > humanities
> > > > and, in effect, adopting the
> > > > > McDonald's slogan,
> > "We do it
> > > > all for you" has predictably
> > > > > destroyed the luxury
> > cachet
> > > > the humanities once enjoyed. And
> > > > > claiming to teach
> > critical
> > > > thinking in big lecture classes with
> > > > > shrinking reading
> > and writing
> > > > assignments isn't going to rebuild
> > > > > the brand.
> > > > >
> > > > The recent, usually ideological, fascination
> > with
> > > > 'outcomes,' in higher
> > > > education, has as a subtext, the question,
> > 'What's the good
> > > > of it?'
> > > > where the good of it is parsed in terms of what
> > graduates
> > > > of which
> > > > schools and departments can achieve as 'useful'
> > members of
> > > > an
> > > > industrialized society. In this setting, the
> > humanities
> > > > don't stand a
> > > > chance; and if someone were to argue that
> > studying the
> > > > humanities
> > > > (any of them) could clearly be shown to have such
> > a
> > > > purpose, the very
> > > > idea of studying them would be lost.
> > >
> > > As Bourdieu would have it, conceiving of education
> > largely or solely in
> > > terms of outcomes is to confuse the opus operatum --
> > the finished product --
> > > with the modus operandi -- the way in which the
> > production is organized.
> > > Outcomes based education is measurable and
> > quantifiable while schooling that
> > > emphasizes process over product stands at a
> > disadvantage in the current
> > > educational nexus. The (somewhat queer) idea that the
> > product of education
> > > is or should be mass manufactured clones prepared to
> > fulfill a set of tasks
> > > necessary to reproduce an increasingly crisis stricken
> > economic system is
> > > wrong but sadly dominant -- i.e. ideological.
> > >
> > > -tor
> > > Longstreet Institute of Higher Learning
>
>
>
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--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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