[lit-ideas] Re: Something Cool to Think About as We start the New Year
- From: John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:39:04 -0600
Your quote reminds me of something I try to put up in all my classrooms,
that is, if I can find space on the board by removing all the
advertising for Visa cards, travel to Mexico for spring break, minimum
pay telephone jobs, and all the other "official" announcements of the
college. It's from a book called OF TIME AND THE ART OF LIVING, by
Robert Grudin. Here are two quotes from two different sections:
>
> Excerpts from: TIME AND THE ART OF LIVING
> by Robert Grudin
>
> VIII.6 WE GENERALLY FEEL THAT WE MUST choose between coddling and
> suppressing teenagers, when instead our proper function is to
> challenge them, through demand, ridicule, frustration, cajolement,
> domination, example and enchantment. We must never be hesitant about
> correcting them and indeed embarrassing them in the process. Loss,
> failure and chagrin are as important to proper education as pain is to
> the health of the body. Realizing error is a spur to careful and
> accurate performance. More profoundly, the repeated small disgraces
> and humiliations of learning encourage students to discard the meaner
> aspects of identity - vanity, defensiveness, affectation and the
> eagerness for petty victories - which would otherwise inhibit them
> from real appreciation and achievement. Delight and dignity lie behind
> this wall of pain. Educators who revere this process realize that they
> cannot achieve it if they remain "on easy and familiar terms" with
> their students. They are aware that the teacher, whose work is a high
> form of love, cannot seek to be loved in return.
>
> VIII-7 MANY MODERN TEACHERS AND theorists of education believe in
> making learning "fun" - making its early stages gamelike and pleasant
> rather than arduous. This method is natural and effective with small
> children, but less so in high school and college, where it generally
> results in a dilution of learning and a depreciation of its excitement
> and dignity. The apologists for this theory tend to forget that the
> process of learning is itself innately pleasurable and that this true
> pleasure is likely to be hidden or distempered if we present it with
> the dishonesty of a publicist. A more dynamic method is preferable -
> one in which a study, initially described as almost mysteriously
> difficult, becomes, as the students invade it, an increasingly
> delightful exploration. This latter method implies a greater respect
> for students and is also closer to nature, for in nature we learn by
> struggle as well as by 'Play.
>
> From Time and the Art of Living (Cambridge, MA: Harper & Row, 1982).
John McCreery wrote:
>The following paragraphs are taken from the top page of the Viewpoints
>Research Institute website
>(http://www.viewpointsresearch.org/about.html). I find the critique of
>both "progressive education" and "Back to Basics" and the concept of
>"hard fun" as the path to serious learning enormously stimulating. They
>are also, I believe, directly relevant to political and policy
>discussions of the kind of education required to equip children for
>successful careers and to grow the informed electorate required for
>democracy to work in this the twenty-first century.
>
>
>
>
>
>>What are some of the drawbacks of current day curriculum design?
>>
>>Many who believe in "progressive education" do not understand the need
>>for thresholds of achievement (below which nothing much of importance
>>has happened within the child). The other main faction -- Back to
>>Basics -- wants thresholds, but misunderstand mathematics and science
>>to the point that neither of these subjects is even presented in
>>school.
>>
>>Are there basic premises for Viewpoints Research educational design?
>>
>>We want to help children develop real fluency in many important areas
>>of learning, including thinking, math and science. Each of these
>>subjects are outside "natural learning" (such as learning to walk and
>>talk). Quite a bit of time and energy needs to be spent to gain an
>>above threshold fluency. There are interesting similarities to art,
>>music, and sports, each of which also requires quite a bit of time and
>>energy to gain fluency. These arts could be termed "hard fun".
>>Mathematicians and scientists know they are doing art and hard fun as
>>well. "Thinking" is a higher category than "just" math, science, and
>>the arts. It represents a synthesis of intuitive and analytical
>>approaches to understanding the world and dealing with it.
>>
>>
>
>
>John L. McCreery
>
>Wishing Everyone a Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous New Year
>
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