When speaking of the University, common images that come to mind are the flashes of individual tests, individual essays and most importantly the individual diploma hanging on the wall. There is no notion of the community, and instead the learning process is focused on the individual’s obtainment of knowledge. In Robert Pirsig’s Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig epitomizes this common notion of a University through his character Phaedrus. Though Phaedrus embodies this idea of learning for oneself, he is unable to reach definite conclusions, grow his ideas nor continue to be a valuable member of society. On the other hand, John Henry Newman in The Idea of the University argues that the best type of learning is learning with others. …show more content…
Many people would go as far as to say that a professor’s job is to deliver knowledge to students, and a student’s job is to absorb it, without reservation. Pirsig emphasizes how this relationship can fail through his description of Phaedrus’ time in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. One student in Phaedrus’ philosophy class questions Aristotle’s views of rhetoric stating that within the text, “‘There are some dubious statements,’” and the professor responds, “‘We are not here to learn what you think…We are here to learn what Aristotle thinks,’” (Pirsig 371). Basically, Pirsig is saying that there is a problem with the conventional professor-student relationship. This is because when a professor begins to feel vulnerable, like in the situation above, the professor transforms into a sovereign leader. When students live under an oppressive regime in the classroom they find themselves incapable to learn on their own terms. I agree that this relationship does need to change, a point that needs emphasizing since so many believe that if the system has operated this long, it can continue to work. I think Phaedrus is mistaken because he overlooks the real reason why the student is struggling with the professor. The issue that this lone student and Phaedrus both experience is that they are confronting the knowledge that the Professor has avowed individually. Instead, to gain more use out of the knowledge John Henry Newman would argue that these students should work with others. This will enable them to, “to adjust together the claims and relations of their subjects of investigation,” (Newman 77). Newman would surely extend this same argument that collaboration must take place between opinions on a certain subject matter, such as Aristotle. The adjustment of claims, which Newman discusses, improves education for the student. Their
In the essay, “Other Voices, Other Rooms” from Inquiry to Academic Writing, Gerald Graff argues that students learn things differently from class to class and are not taught to use information from one class in another. This is a problem especially in higher education today because there is such a large gap from professor to professor. Although the disagreement from one subject to the next may seem like a problem to some, if there were no disagreements, nothing would be worth learning. While these problems may occur, they are essential in the evolvement of education. Without these disagreements there would not be any search for more information to solve the problems. Also, students would not be motivated to continue to learn. The disagreements between the two are what seem to confuse students, but what confuses them more is how the education system is set up. Students must learn to make
He further stated that with all sincerity in themselves and colleagues, public school is now regarded as outmoded and barbarous. This thought, according to him is both observable to students and the teachers alike, but the students inhabit in it for a short period, while the teachers are condemned to it. Pursuant to teachers being condemned, they live and work as intellectual guerrillas strong-minded to stimulate students, ignite their inquisitiveness, and to open their minds, yet reluctant to stay behind in their profession. Together with this, teachers...
What stands out about American universities today? Is it the academic opportunities offered to students, experienced faculty, or strong sense of community? Or...perhaps they have lost their focus. It is not uncommon for universities to focus their efforts and budgets elsewhere; by building state of the art gyms, for example, remodeling luxury dorms, grooming campuses, or creating more management positions. College students and professors alike are subject to the nationally occurring changes in higher level education. Colleges are becoming commercialized and tuition is rising, but is the quality of education improving? In “Why We Should Fear University, Inc.”, Fredrik DeBoer is able to provide a personal take on the issue of corporate domination
She begins the chapter by explaining the importance of invisibility in the classroom. “Don’t be too noticeable is the rule” that is commonly known by most students (91). She elaborates by explaining that a student should not add new information into a conversation yet ask a question that would concern all students about upcoming work or tests. Later in the chapter, she highlights that the instructor 's main role in the classroom is “getting [students] to say something” because students felt pressured into remaining silent (94). This pressure came from personal self-doubt and the desire to not be defined as unintelligent. In conclusion to these points, Nathan states that “despite official assertions about the university as a free marketplace of ideas, the classroom doesn’t often work that way in practice” (95). In addition to in class discussions being intellectually weak, conversations outside of class rarely involved academics, but when academics were mentioned, there was a limited set of a few questions like “‘Did you do the reading for today?’ and ‘Did we have anything due today?’” (96). She explains that no students ever asked question about how interesting assignments were because they “weren’t acceptable or normative topics to introduce” while outside the classroom (96). Based on the lack of intellectual discussions in and out of class, Nathan concluded that academics play a minor role in the life of
In our education system, a professor will be given lecture for hours to hundreds of students in some large universities with expectation to increase their knowledge. At the end of the day, some of them will drop, some will finish their major with a low GPA, and others will graduate with a good grade, but a few knowledges remain in their memories. As a matter of fact, some people can be holding their PhD without be able to help their children at home with a basic homework in physics. The education system teaches them how to learn. Nowadays, we even have classes to learn how to learn strategies; as a result, our students become often as product “prisoners” of our education system because in the education system that transfer knowledge, students learn to a score good grade. If we assume that students who work just for grade are prisoners in Plato’s metaphor, their teachers and parents are prisoners as well. In the school system, some teachers don’t have any love for their career or for their students; therefore, students are going to dislike the study and work just for passing grade because of lack of dialogue between students and teachers. This issue is well emphasis when “The underlying assumption of dialogue is that knowledge is not a finished product, but is rather shaped in praxis out of a context-dependent partnership
Aronowitz, S., & Giroux, H. (2000). The knowledge factory: Dismantling the coporate university and creating true higher learning. Boston, MA: Beacon Press
The article, "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? A Word to the Incoming Class", is written by Mark Edmundson who is an English professor at the University of Virginia. Edmundson's article is, as mentioned in the article title, a word to the incoming class. In this article, he reflects on what it means to get a proper or "real" education at a university or college. I will be focusing on what Edmundson means by getting a "real education" as this relates to me as a college student. In this reflection, I will be finding out why in order to get this type of education, you have to fight the university itself and why the university itself is a target for this fight. The examples that I picked to support this involve
Not only do the people that students socialize with influence the way scholars think, but so do the instructors. In W.D. Snodgrass's poem "The Examination", the people who are mutilating this person are actually instructors, and th...
...s that you develop a way of regarding the information that you receive to the society that you are living in. He also believes that a quality education develops a students moral views and ability to think. And that these qualities are best developed in the traditional classroom setting by interaction between the student and their professors, and the student’s social life on campus, that is, their interaction with fellow students.
Due to the effects of higher enrolment, teaching methods are now directed towards suiting the masses, thus everything has become less personal, as well as, less educationally in depth. Teaching techniques consist of multiple choice tests, rather than written answer questions which require critical analysis, as Jacobs states “So many papers to mark, relative to numbers and qualities of mentors to mark them, changed the nature of test papers. Some came to consist of “True or False?” and “Which of the following is correct?” types of questions” (Jacobs 49). While teachers also no longer engage in one on one conversations with students, but merely in a lecture hall among masses and everyone is seen as just a student number. Jacobs states a complaint from a student “who claimed they were shortchanged in education. They had expected more personal rapport with teachers” (Jacobs 47). Universities are too much focused on the cost benefit analysis, of the problem of increased enrolment, with the mind set of “quantity trumps quality” (Jacobs 49). The benefit of student education and learning is not being put first, but rather the expansion of the university to benefit financial issues. Taylor states “individualism and the expansion of instrumental reason, have often been accounted for as by-products
With lifelong effects, teachers impact the quantity, quality, and overall enjoyment of the educational experience. Their effect dilutes itself the classroom, into present life, and even the future. In the classroom, they mold and guide youth in their lifelong quest to search for the truth and their own voice in the world. Yet their influence does not stop at the classroom door. In fact, teachers have a profound impact on morals, creativity, and even politics. "Teachers always have the power in the class," Christian Zawodniak discusses in , "I'll Have To Help More Of You Than I Want To." They hold the grades and students usually perceive them as holding the knowledge too (Zawodniak 124). But how should a teacher exercise this bestowed power? Is a forced learning environment more beneficial or is a cooperative pedagogy more productive? With diverse students and unique learning needs, it is difficult to identify one or the other as more advantageous. However, I will attempt to explore the benefits and disadvantages of both, as well as how they can be combined or compromised in a delicate balance. Although I will strive to stay neutral and merely present the options, I may also occasionally include my own personal experiences.
In the passage in question, the discussion between Socrates and Protagoras has broken down in disagreement about what its ground rules will be. After some angry saber-rattling from the principals, and some well-meaning intervention from the onlookers, order is restored and the dialogue continues. For all its vivid, memorable banter, the passage is thus apparently no more than a hiatus from the dialogue’s main line of argument.(1) A commentary may skip over it lightly;(2) an anthology may omit it entirely.(3) However, I claim that the passage is more than mere literary entertainment, and has significance beyond the methodology of Socratic dialogue. In this essay I would like to give a reading of the passage which shows it to be not only a dispute about philosophical methodology but also a parable for politics. I will then go on to show that this political parable, placed as it is at the center of a philosophical work in which education is explicitly at issue, suggests some essential interconnections between philosophy, politics, and education.
...sources for Educators." PACTISS – Philosophers and Critical Thinkers in Senior Schools: Resources for Educators | You Can Upload and Share Your Resources as Well as Download What You Need. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. .
Most students learn by experiencing things for themselves. Rousseau would disagree with me about the teacher-student relationship, but he would agree with me about students learning by doing and making mistakes. For example, Rousseau (1993) writes in his book Emile, “If he goes wrong let him alone, do not correct his mistakes; hold your tongue till he finds them out for himself and corrects them, or at most arrange something, as opportunity offers, which may show him his mistakes” (p. 160). If a student does not experience things and sometimes make mistakes, then he will never be able to function as an independent person. Mrs. Drigger would often uses centers as a form of letting us learn. These centers focused mainly on the student using reasoning in order to learn the material and perform hands-on tasks. If we made a mistake, we were expected to fix it. If it was beyond our knowledge to fix the mistake, she would assist us. Mrs. Driggers promoted independence, but was still very emotionally close with her students. She was one of the few teachers who could balance these two contradicting expectations that make a good
...at previously, sometimes in the midst of a discussion, people forget that there are two sides of a story and not everyone has to agree to yours. What we learn from our books or our studies is not what is necessarily important. What we learn from our peers and our professors is what’s important. Learning is more than absorbing fact, it is acquiring understanding, and it is being passionate about the material you are given. Each piece that we have read in class, and each comment that we make impacts a person no matter how little it seems. The education systems focuses too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning. However, this course felt like we were learning something instead trying to finish the curriculum. As Albert Einstein once said, “education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”.