There's frequent talk of war in The Republic but I'd like to consider it as an element in education. Arab scholars, especially Quranic scholars, refer to a word that means something like "knowledge-struggle" and involves the word jihad but in a much different sense than FOX News uses it. The struggle ties into our discussion of active vs. passive learning. I think there should be a struggle with the teacher, conflicting beliefs (I've learned the most when arguing with a teacher), but also with fellow students. The struggle between students just doesn't seem to happen. It's a kind of attitude like: "We just need to get through this, y'all, and pass and learn what we can and it'll be all good." It's not anyone's fault but somewhere a struggle mixed with a desire of wonder to learn was lost. The rewards with learning aren't immediate and for a lot of us, it's an acquired disposition, but once acquired learning begins to feel like recreation.
I think that learning is one of those great things we were talking about in class. "Nothing great is easy" While I understand what that quote is saying in a sense, sometimes easy things are great as well. Like learning for example. I agree that learning is somewhat of an "acquired disposition" as you put it. One of the greatest things I've done, in my opinion, is deciding to get an education and learn.
ReplyDelete... and once you acquire the habit of learning, great things can happen seemingly without great effort!
DeleteI agree with your point here Chris, this somewhat goes along with the question I brought up in my post this week. If a student is arguing for something they do not necessarily believe in but playing devils advocate for the sake of learning, does this help or hurt the learning process? I agree that there must be more actively engaged students in order for a better learning environment, and at times it does help to even disagree with the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThis is an important question, which we should address in class.
ReplyDelete