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Thursday, August 22, 2024

Steering

[W]asn't that what education was all about anyway? To rescue us from our natural inclinations and to steer us in the ways of the best that had been thought and discovered and created over the long course of civilization?
~ Elizabeth McCracken
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It doesn't seem clear what education is about at all. Is it about job training? Life skills? Is it about cultivating citizens and building a better society? Is it about loosing creativity or replication of past behavior? Often I worry that the purpose of education is simply to get people to conform. Certainly not to transform.

Like when I took an American literature course and I thought the instructor wanted us to connect ideas and think creatively about the impact of the work. No. He wanted us to repeat back to him what he said. I did that after the first exam. 

(pause)

I bet he also wanted us to give him feedback on the course evaluations about what a great teacher he was.

(pause)

At that point, I chose to no longer conform.

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