School Mode on the One Hand; Church&State on the Other

The 2 Economies
(continued)
School Mode on the one hand
Church&State Mode on the other

One thing we know for certain: all the players
in this economic drama —good guys and bad,
virtuous and corrupt&greedy—are educated
in the liberal arts, don’t you bet?

They all took required-composition probably
& passed Gen Ed requirements unless they
went to Amherst or Brown where I’ve been
told they eschew such regulation.

Many went on to take Ph degrees in higher
education where they studied not only the
subject matter but the philosophy of the subject
matter making them philosophers as well as
practitioners. Need we argue?.

Given THAT, then, consider:

Einstein said something like the mind that
created the problem can not be the mind
that solves it.

One the one hand, yes?
But then also on other hand!

F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have defined
genius as something like the capacity to hold
2 conflicting notions in mind at the same time
without going nuts or diminishing either. (Easy to say.)

A house divided: standing it!

Or you might prefer practicing Coleridge’s
capacity to suspend disbelief, or even more
challenging and generative: to suspend belief.
Willfully.

And as Neils Bohr is said to have said:
the opposite of a profound truth is another
profound truth, and when paradox arises,
we know we are making some progress.

(This is EngMajor kind of talk. Backed up
with quote & reference so as to provide
authority beyond my own.)

So: we have to be of 2 minds. A least.
3-- tops! A house divided in the best sense.
2 economies and then, what? an overall Eco-logic:
Local Home Economics: the House of US.

You can’t talk this kind of nonsense in the
board room, of course —or on the stump, or
to alumni and trustees. Only in school where
you’re putting IT in play.

You can talk this way to students if you warn
them not to talk this way out-of-the-classroom.
“Look: the way we talk in this room stays in
this room, unless you purposely want to confuse
citizens. This is “school mode”— not to be conflated,
collapsed, or confused with “church & state” mode:
the Other Economy & Dominant Paradigm.

Here’s how talk is typically talked OUT of SCHOOL
when the aim is to soothe the savage soul, not to stir,
provoke or educe.

[Listen to the SOUND. VOICE is everything, say the teachers
of Creative Non-Fiction Writing & it’s true: author-ness--the
sound of author authorizing authority authoritatively. Content
is galore: you want the SOUND. That's what counts.
Vox de Auctoritas vs ex officious. (That’s why we require
composition: to empower VOICE.)]

From the Headmaster of
Northfield Mount Hermon School
to alumni and parents:

The values, attitudes, and skills that develop from an education
of the head, heart, and hand prepare students to meet the
challenges of a complex world:

Our students are resilient, thoughtful, and engaged. Our mission
centers on our current and future students…

Certainly, NMH will adjust prudently to the economic climate,
conserving energy, finding efficiencies, reducing waste, and
otherwise preserving our resources for the long-term health of
the school.

From the perspective of how we teach our students about the
world and how they can make a difference in it, we will
continue to sponsor programs in our State of the World series
that offer thoughtful perspectives on the historic events of these
times and the intricacies of the world economy.

We will continue to engage students in financial and environmental
sustainability efforts that include natural resource conservation,
waste management, and recycling programs. We will continue to
require students to work for the school and sponsor service
programs for the wider community.
***********
That right there: the sound of the Church&State Economy
(the dominant paradise): the economy of polite political
correctness & pragmatic get R done-ness; Consumer
Economy of Give & Take & all is well and all is well and
all manner of things is well, not that here’s anything wrong
with that BUT: not to be collapsed, conflated or confused with:

The sound of School Mode Economy (MAKING)
Get a load of this:

“Clarity is not a virtue. If everything you say is
detailed and explicit, you won’t give your
collaborators room to run.

Put ideas out there that are half-baked, ideas
where you’re not even sure what it means yet.
Put yourself in an environment that rewards failure.

Creativity is risky; successful creative people are
also the ones who fail the most often.

Creativity is inefficient.

Don’t expect every idea and every project to pan out.
Know when to cut your losses and move on.

“Innovation emerges from the bottom up, unpredictably,
and it’s only after the innovation has occurred that every
one realizes what’s happened. Innovation can’t be planned;
it can’t be predicted: it has to be allowed to emerge.
Like successful improvisation.

Key to understanding innovation: to realize that
collaborative webs are more important than
creative people. The power of this collaborative
web …is what companies must tap into if they
want to create a culture that encourages
significant innovation.”

Sampling some of Keith Sawyer’s
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

Hear the difference?
How alien: the 2 economies.
Can’t get them in the same room together without
feeling an appropriate hostility.

Got to figure out how to divide the house (ecos) so it
don’t contaminate itself; because other wise it’s all
church&state, know what I mean? No room in the inn
for play or “school” (L. schola: “leisure time”) during
these challenging times.

Redundantly, Sam (Begging to have you differ:
improving my terms and images)