Subj : Re: The Documentary...
To   : Tharius
From : Daemon
Date : Wed Aug 24 2005 01:13 pm

  Re: Re: The Documentary...
  By: Tharius to Sniper on Tue Aug 23 2005 11:24 pm

 > > Straight "A" so far.  Had to correct the teacher the other day though...
 > > so, may loose a few points.  :)
 > 
 > ... but they so often respond so enthusiastically to criticisms :)

  You know...  All but ONE of mine did.  They encouraged it, actually.  A lot.

  Medaille in Buffalo is an excellent college.  No matter what they're
teaching, there's always not only a HUGE component dedicated to critical
thought beyond what's actually being taught (and, usually, beyond even the
subject matter and course description at hand - had some great philosophical
debates with my statistics prof., and some mind-boggling political science
discussons with my cultural anthropology prof., and many profound
concrete/abstract thought discussions with my gen. ed. prof., for instance),
but a very constant dialogue between prof. and student obviously designed to
strengthen one's ability and incliniation to defend one's points of view with
structured reason.

  *shrug*  Which is, I think, the way it SHOULD be.  I mean, in high school,
traditionally, if you memorize all the data in your text book, you're golden. 
Here's your A, thanks for playing.

  But in college, memorizing the text and all lectured data should be just the
point where you've gotten yourself prepared to begin learning.  (I actually
think High School, etc. should be more along that track, too, but
standardization rather neatly defeats it, thank you teachers' unions and
politicians trying to look useful).

  What's the point of paying for an "education" that's composed purely of
"learning" that which you could absorb from books on your own with a little
effort and nothing more?

  My brother went from cruising without effort in school to having to actually
engage his intellect and not just his memory in RIT, so this is a topic he and
I discussed a LOT over the last year.  It's not an easy transition, and he
really struggled with it sometimes.

  Teachers should not only react favorably to criticism, but look for it,
foster it, and promote it to inspire debate, or they're accomplishing nothing.


       [daemon]                 
       In the shuffling madness...      



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