Dave, Exactly what I was aiming for, I am Sincerely glad that you returned to The MD. Yourself and Arlo, Andre Too, have communicated the ideas I also hold but unfortunately I am Unable to express them with the level Of proficiency that you gentlemen have displayed at the moment. Having sustained a few painful Injuries it has really limited my ability To contribute the way I would like.
Thank you Ron Sent from my iPhone > On Jan 14, 2014, at 11:08 AM, david <dmbucha...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Just some relevant quotes on the topic.... Obedient mules or free and > creative persons. > > > Now, at last, the standard rhetoric texts came into their own. The principles > expounded in them were no longer rules to rebel against, not Ultimates in > themselves, but just techniques, gimmicks, for producing what really counted > and stood independently of the techniques... Quality. > > ...The whole Quality concept was beautiful. It worked. It was that > mysterious, individual, internal goal of each creative person, on the > blackboard at last." > > In other words, rules are tools, they're not supposed to constrain you. And > they don't really make any sense until you have something to say first. When > you have a purpose, when you have your own internal goal then the rules > become a helpful guide, a helpful aid, then they make sense. > > > > At first the classes were excited by this exercise, but as time went on they > became bored. What he meant by Quality was obvious. They obviously knew what > it was too, and so they lost interest in listening. Their question now was > 'All right, we know what Quality is. How do we get it?'Now, at last, the > standard rhetoric texts came into their own. The principles expounded in them > were no longer rules to rebel against, not Ultimates in themselves, but just > techniques, gimmicks, for producing what really counted and stood > independently of the techniques... Quality. What had started out as a heresy > from traditional rhetoric turned into a beautiful introduction to it.He > singled out aspects of Quality such as unity, vividness, authority, economy, > sensitivity, clarity, emphasis, flow, suspense, [brilliance, precision, > proportion, depth and so on]; kept each of these as poorly defined as Quality > itself, but demonstrated them by the same class reading techniques. He showed > how the asp ec > t of Quality called unity, the hanging-togetherness of a story, could be > improved with a technique called an outline. The authority of an argument > could be jacked up with a technique called footnotes, which gives > authoritative reference. Outlines and footnotes are standard things taught in > all freshman composition classes, but now as devices for improving Quality > they had a purpose.Now that was over with. By reversing a basic rule that all > things which are to be taught must first be defined, he had found a way out > of all this. He was pointing to no principle, no rule of good writing, no > theory but he was pointing to something, nevertheless, that was very real, > whose reality they couldn't deny. The vacuum that had been created by the > withholding of grades (another experiment he created) was suddenly filled > with the positive goal of Quality, and the whole thing fit together. > Students, astonished, came by his office and said, "I used to just hate > English. Now I spend more time > on it than anything else." Not just one or two. Many. The whole Quality > concept was beautiful. It worked. It was that mysterious, individual, > internal goal of each creative person, on the blackboard at last."In other > words, rules are tools, they're not supposed to constrain you. And they don't > really make any sense until you have something to say first. When you have a > purpose, when you have your own internal goal then the rules become a helpful > guide, a helpful aid, then they make sense. The students discovered this on > their own. Well, not completely on their own. But he began to wonder why it > worked. And he soon realised that this was no small gimmick. > > > The students biggest problem was a slave mentality which had been built into > him by years of carrot-and -whip grading, a mule mentality which said, "If > you don't whip me, I won't work." He didn't get whipped. He didn't work. And > the cart of civilization, which he supposedly was being trained to pull, was > just going to have to creak along a little slower without him. > > This is a tragedy, however, only if you presume that the cart of > civilization, "the system", is pulled by mules. ...The purpose of abolishing > grades and degrees is not to punish mules or to get rid of them but to > provide an environment in which that mule can turn into a free man. > > The hypothetical student, still a mule, would drift around for a while. He > would get another kind of education quite as valuable as the one hed > abandoned, in what used to be called the "school of hard knocks." Instead of > wasting money and time as a high-status mule, he would now have to get a job > as a low-status mule, maybe as a mechanic. Actually his real status would go > up. He would be making a contribution for a change. Maybe thats what he would > do for the rest of his life. Maybe hed found his level. But dont count on it. > > In time six months; five years, perhaps a change could easily begin to take > place. He would become less and less satisfied with a kind of dumb, > day-to-day shopwork. His creative intelligence, stifled by too much theory > and too many grades in college, would now become re-awakened by the boredom > of the shop. Thousands of hours of frustrating mechanical problems would have > made him more interested in machine design. He would like to design machinery > himself. He'd think he could do a better job. He would try modifying a few > engines, meet with success, look for more success, but feel blocked because > he didn't have the theoretical information, he'd now find a brand of > theoretical information which he'd have a lot of respect for, namely, > mechanical engineering. > > So he would come back to our degreeless and gradeless school, but with a > difference. Hed no longer be a grade-motivated person. He'd be a > knowledge-motivated person. He would need no external pushing to learn. His > push would come from inside. He'd be a free man. He wouldn't need a lot of > discipline to shape him up. In fact, if the instructors were slacking on the > job he would be likely to shape them up by asking rude questions. He'd be > there to learn something, would be paying to learn something and they'd > better come up with it. > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
