"Learning isn’t about downloading a certain quantity of information into your brain, as the proponents of online instruction seem to think."
— Deresiewicz, William (b. 1964)
Date
May 23, 2011
Metaphor
"Learning isn’t about downloading a certain quantity of information into your brain, as the proponents of online instruction seem to think."
Metaphor in Context
There is a large, public debate right now about primary and secondary education. There is a smaller, less public debate about higher education. What I fail to understand is why they aren’t the same debate. We all know that students in elementary and high school learn best in small classrooms with the individualized attention of motivated teachers. It is the same in college. Education, it is said, is lighting a fire, not filling a bucket. The word comes from the Latin for “educe,” lead forth. Learning isn’t about downloading a certain quantity of information into your brain, as the proponents of online instruction seem to think. It is about the kind of interchange and incitement—the leading forth of new ideas and powers—that can happen only in a seminar. (“Seminar” being a fancy name for what every class already is from K–12.) It is labor-intensive; it is face-to-face; it is one-at-a-time.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
William Deresiewicz, "Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education" The Nation May 23, 2011. <Link to www.thenation.com>
Date of Entry
05/08/2011
