>Whoever came up with the idea that subject-based learning in discrete
>categories was best needs to be kicked in the butt. Schools aren't
>assembly lines.
anyone else read Toynbee? historiologist.. {one who studies the history
of {the study of history}}. apologies for the wierd look of the braces,
but they tend to eliminate semantic oscillations.
Toynbee's conclusions get a bit far out.. there's a definite spritual bent
to his work.. but his questions are very good ones. one of his biggest
objections to the institution of history in the early 20th century was that
it had become industrialized. scholars were treating primary evidence as
raw material to be processed, and going wherever the pickings were
thickest.
one case in point dealt with two pre-roman civilizations in the
Mediterranean region. one was the Etruscans, and i don't recall the
other. the Etruscans had a huge shaping influence on Rome, and thus on
the development of western culture, and the other group was more or less a
blip on the radar. the problem is that the Etruscans wrote everything on
clay tablets, and lived in a swamp. the other group had plenty of durable
artifacts and lived in a more archaeologist-friendly environment.
Etruscan writings are very rare, but there are entire warehouses full of
writings from this other culture, covering every aspect of daily life in a
culture which didn't influence anyone.
Toynbee was dismayed that the number of scholars researching, and students
choosing a field to study, each culture was proportional to the
availability of written artifacts. the Etruscans were enormously more
important in the overall historical scope, but only a fraction of the
historical community devoted any atttention to them. a vast number of
experts had devoted their careers, on the other hand, to translating and
indexing a couple centuries worth of daily shopping lists.
Marx had similar things to say about the dangers of bringing industrial
processes into education. if schools are run as assembly lines, students
become commodity goods. the 'best' students will be defined as those most
tractable to the industrial process with lowest cost and widest general
applicability.
mike stone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 'net geek..
been there, done that, have network, will travel.
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