There is a constitutional crisis—and a digital coup—underway in the United States. This post is about a worthwhile subject, but it’s sent with heavy heart. Don’t think for a moment that I am not on edge, and aware that you and the rest of the world are watching.
Or perhaps it’s fortuitous that we’re talking about education, or rather the failure of conventional education. How else to explain the way the world’s wealthiest nation has got itself into this situation? In addition, one of the federal agencies targeted for closure is the Department of Education.
Today’s podcast: A conversation about “schoolishness”
Anthropologist Susan Blum talks with Karen Christensen about how she came to question today’s educational practices and discusses her latest book Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning. Her study of Chinese social values led her to explore what we mean by cleverness and originality, and she began to question the nature of education itself, and its role in students’ lives. This took her to critical, progressive, and feminist pedagogy and the anthropology of learning. The conversation also goes into alternative education, global variation, the role of parents, and the use of online tools and smart phones in the classroom.
Third places are also a place for learning, wrote Ray Oldenburg:
Our undergraduates, unlike those in many other countries, do not learn enough outside the classroom. They conform to Ralph Waldo Emerson's condemnation of Americans generally; they fail to avail themselves of the "power of their companions." I once taught a research methods course not far from a student lounge and one day a student came to me with a bit of pride in his voice. "Doc," he said "We learn more in that lounge than we do in your classroom." Yes, and they ALL learn!
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