Darryl & Natalia wrote:
Please see **** below.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Darryl & Natalia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 2:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Natalia has sent you an article from npr.org
Darryl & Natalia wrote:
I agree that there are many pseudo-elite schools laying claims to the
inspiration of young minds. I agree that the tone and emphasis in many
courses will be guided by politics. But you still don't get much more
than the three R's in most publicly funded US schools.
I'm sorry you found Yale lacking in the sixties. I'm sure you would be
doubly appalled today. Nonetheless, I believe it was Yale that was the
recipient of an anonymous $100 million dollar donation to cover all
tuition fees for music students. Provided they don't merely pump out
marching band music, the money isn't entirely wasted.
I'm glad you picked this example. The article I read about is said that
the shift
from the students paying to the students getting free tuition would
eliminate the students' sense of entitlement to good grades in return
for all the money they [the students] spent. Now the school
could be more selective/rigorous/...
**** Did you pick cite this article because what it says doen't make sense?
What doesn't make sense? That the students expect good grades after
paying a lot of
tuition -- actually I found that pretty surprising and a relief from the
usual thing where
the students pay a lot of tuition and paradoxically
still *don't* expect to get good grades.
The article said that now Yale could compete for the best talent because the
students didn't have to pay, and so the less well to do but more talented
would apply.
What is a Charette? That's where architecture students forego sleep
to get an assignment in by the deadline -- architecture projects are
notoriously labor-intensive: models, drawings (maybe the computer
helps here???), etc. Now, who couldn't the students work on their
projects, say, 6 or 8 hours a day and have a good night's sleep each
nite, a leisurely dinner, etc.?
The problem I see with schools is asymmetrical power of the
teachers to jerk the students around (of course I/m not
speaking here of graduate ass'ts and adjuncts who teach
but also get jerked around) Why cannot education be a
genteel collaboration between persons who mutually respect
each other, albeit some at this point in time happen to know
more than others?
But I recently had an experience about "respect" where
a psychotherapist refused to acknowledge that life
circumstances beyond my control had deeply terrified
me, because, said therapist said, to agree with that
would not be to respect me [as being beyond circumstances
or something like that -- needless to say, I didn't ask, but
registered the blow -- and felt even more discouraged
with "people", into which category this person now
self-included themself for me not that they
presumably care about that...].
As for popular culture in poor places, I honestly think that's
great as far as it goes, but (a) the people are still poor and I
think that (b) rich people [even middle class persons from
first-world countries] should stay where they are safe
and not go looking for exotic pleasures -- unless they
sign a release saying that their country
of origin has no responsibility to come to their aid if they
get kidnapped, etc.
Yes, the poor make money off tourism, and that is good
for them -- we try to make the best of
situations we cannot change for the better --, but the tourists do
return to their obviously better lives, which I should think
just might be cause for bitterness, jealousy, mugging, etc. No?
As an aside, as for myself, I really don't find folk culture interesting
compared with the best of the "Dead White Males" -- and
a few others like Murasaki Shikibu ("The Tale of Genji"). And that's
a bit remarkable, since almost without exception, nobody
in my childrearing or even in my Yale-ing really rewarded me
for such interests. They just kept testing me, be it
on science or on Shakespeare [or, had they known of her,
Murasaki...].... (also: I don't like crowds and
I don't like germs, and folk culture is not generally a
very sanitary place.)
But I sincerely wish the folk culture people in the poor neighborhoods
that interest you all the best -- the closest I've come to them,
however, is Paolo Freire's _The Pedagogy of the Oppressed_,
and that is close enough for me.
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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