Tuesday, February 20, 2007
100th post!
100 posts... We're an institution!
So, I was having a really good conversation with a fellow student this evening during a class break. We are studying Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and our professor had just finished a remarkeably thorough and fascinating explanation of the history of the Roman Republic and how we must see the details in the play in the light of such history if we are to fully grasp what Shakespeare is trying to get us to think about, and a few of us were commenting on how interesting the play was now, and how we can't understand how it could ever be considered "boring." One woman remarked that she was at UofH recently and overheard a couple of coeds lamenting the fact that they were reading it, and how "stupid" and "boring" it was. I then made the comment that I thought that was normal and that most young people think all of the "great books" are "boring."
We then got onto a related topic about young people in general, as another woman argued that students only found literature like "Julius Caesar" boring because they didn't have a proper teacher, one who would open up the text for them in such a way as to spark their natural, innate curiosity for learning. I, in all my jaded wisdom, explained that I used to think that, but that 8 years of teaching made me recant. I look at it now as this: there are some students so apathetic that the grooviest or most brilliant teacher in the world can't ignite the spark of knowledge in their hearts. She disagreed with vehemence, and then the break was over - back to the Shakespeare.
It struck me, as I was thinking about this while driving home, that she was saying people are all the same - they have the same nature, the same innate desire for knowledge. Or, another way of putting it, if given a good teacher to stimulate us mentally, we can all find excitement and significance in an ancient, "boring" text. She was arguing deductively then, based on these assumptions, and I suppose her assumptions were based on her beliefs (a priori) and not so much based on her observations and teaching experience.
Which comes first, the beliefs or the individual examples we lump together to form opinions on things? It's a good question...
I was definitely constructing my theory from my experiences, as I could think of quite a few examples of listless, apathetic children who sit in class 5 days a week with very good teachers (and I'm not talking about myself). But then I started to notice how easy it is to fall into this kind of generalization, and how much of what I perceive from my limited encounters with people, or from watching TV or reading books, is sadly congealed into a kind of oversimplified hasty generalization. I guess it's a form of stereotyping. It also got me thinking about how much of our so-called knowledge, then, isn't really knowledge at all, at least not in the sense of something objective and firm. It's constructed on the shifting sands of whatever things have happened to occur in my existence, and that I've seen from just my own two eyes.
I don't really know how to get past this problem, unless it is to simply stop trying to explain "how things are" in general, and only speak of individual cases. But that's no fun. Isn't it interesting how many of the greatest minds and communicators - the ones who gain massive widespread popularity - are ones who are so good at categorizing and generalizing and simplifiying. But then, I see I just did it again! J$ ¶ 11:44 PM
100 posts... We're an institution!
So, I was having a really good conversation with a fellow student this evening during a class break. We are studying Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and our professor had just finished a remarkeably thorough and fascinating explanation of the history of the Roman Republic and how we must see the details in the play in the light of such history if we are to fully grasp what Shakespeare is trying to get us to think about, and a few of us were commenting on how interesting the play was now, and how we can't understand how it could ever be considered "boring." One woman remarked that she was at UofH recently and overheard a couple of coeds lamenting the fact that they were reading it, and how "stupid" and "boring" it was. I then made the comment that I thought that was normal and that most young people think all of the "great books" are "boring."
We then got onto a related topic about young people in general, as another woman argued that students only found literature like "Julius Caesar" boring because they didn't have a proper teacher, one who would open up the text for them in such a way as to spark their natural, innate curiosity for learning. I, in all my jaded wisdom, explained that I used to think that, but that 8 years of teaching made me recant. I look at it now as this: there are some students so apathetic that the grooviest or most brilliant teacher in the world can't ignite the spark of knowledge in their hearts. She disagreed with vehemence, and then the break was over - back to the Shakespeare.
It struck me, as I was thinking about this while driving home, that she was saying people are all the same - they have the same nature, the same innate desire for knowledge. Or, another way of putting it, if given a good teacher to stimulate us mentally, we can all find excitement and significance in an ancient, "boring" text. She was arguing deductively then, based on these assumptions, and I suppose her assumptions were based on her beliefs (a priori) and not so much based on her observations and teaching experience.
Which comes first, the beliefs or the individual examples we lump together to form opinions on things? It's a good question...
I was definitely constructing my theory from my experiences, as I could think of quite a few examples of listless, apathetic children who sit in class 5 days a week with very good teachers (and I'm not talking about myself). But then I started to notice how easy it is to fall into this kind of generalization, and how much of what I perceive from my limited encounters with people, or from watching TV or reading books, is sadly congealed into a kind of oversimplified hasty generalization. I guess it's a form of stereotyping. It also got me thinking about how much of our so-called knowledge, then, isn't really knowledge at all, at least not in the sense of something objective and firm. It's constructed on the shifting sands of whatever things have happened to occur in my existence, and that I've seen from just my own two eyes.
I don't really know how to get past this problem, unless it is to simply stop trying to explain "how things are" in general, and only speak of individual cases. But that's no fun. Isn't it interesting how many of the greatest minds and communicators - the ones who gain massive widespread popularity - are ones who are so good at categorizing and generalizing and simplifiying. But then, I see I just did it again! J$ ¶ 11:44 PM
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