A relevant. Model is Platos Socrates Who called himself a midwife, The "guide on the side" who first Broke down the static " mule mentality" and induced aporia As a method via dialectic to name One method, to incite the love of Wisdom.
Sent from my iPhone > On Jan 14, 2014, at 4:42 PM, david <[email protected]> wrote: > > The ideal student is the one who is not motivated by the "mule mentality" or > "slave mentality". That's what eliminating the grades was all about. The > grades were the sticks and carrots that produced this mule mentality in the > first place. Just as it is with motorcycle maintenance, care is the other > side of Quality. > > I think we cannot do better than Granger on this topic. There is a paper by > him on Ant's site called "Dewey and Pirsig in Education. [ > http://robertpirsig.org/Granger.htm ] Here's a little taste of it... > > ------------------------------------------------- > The student[s'] biggest problem was a slave mentality which had been built > into [them] by years of carrot-and-whip grading, a mule mentality which said, > 'If you don't whip me, I won't work.' [They] didn't get whipped. [They] > didn't work. And the cart of civilization, which [they] supposedly [were] > being trained to pull, was just going to have to creak along a little slower > without [them]. (ZMM, 175) > Ironically, Pirsig thought, this is in direct contradiction to the academy’s > claim that civilization “is best served not by mules but by free men” (ZMM, > 175). And education is supposedly the means to this freedom. As tragic as > this slave mentality sounds, Pirsig saw that it is unavoidable only if one > presumes that the cart of civilization must be propelled by something outside > itself, by disinterested mule-selves. Whether these mules are in front of or > behind the cart matters little here. In either position, they bespeak of > stubborn, laboring beasts – the polar opposite of artistically-engaged human > beings -- beasts that have no immediate investment in or sense of connection > to the larger cart of civilization. This means that carrots (grades, monetary > awards, amusements, special privileges) and whips (punitive threats) are > necessary to keep them in line -- what in the vernacular of education is > often called being "on task." External stimuli and behavioral conditioning > become the accepted means to an external end. Take them away and, like > Pirsig’s students, the mules protest forlornly or, being inherently passive > animals, promptly fall into a torpor. But Pirsig had no desire to punish or > cast off his student mules in abolishing grades (ZMM, 175). In fact he was > convinced that the whole cart-mule analogy was at once ill-conceived and > educationally destructive. > I suspect that Dewey would once again concur with Pirsig’s take on the > situation. In any number of places, he speaks about the difficulties issuing > from the kind of presumed self-world separation endemic to the cart-mule > picture. > ------------------------------------------------- > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
