Liberal Art and the liberal arts & can they Reconcile & Just Get Along?

Dear Dialecticians (& colleagues etc.)

Maybe the following (somewhat redundant) might help
you see (and treasure) the  difference between what we
do in "the Cave" and what you do in all your other classes. 

n a way—all the same:   schoolroom courses.  In another 
way: viewed from the NORM:  my courses are a JOKE 
(I.E. yek: to speak - "joke," "juggle," "jocular," "jocose," 
"jeopardy") I hope. Get IT?   
 
 Listen to the Sound of Professionalized Hire Education:

American Academy of Colleges and Universities:
Assessing Learning Outcomes at the University
of Cincinnati: Comparing  Rubric Assessments 
to Standardized Tests. Richard Robles uses
an  analogy to illustrate the differences between
standardized tests and rubric-based assessments,
two important tools currently used to measure
student learning outcomes. “Rubric assessments
are like thermometers,whereas standardized tests
are like litmus tests,” Robles explains.

“Both are useful for specific tasks—standardized
tests give you an immediate answer about one point in
time, whereas  with rubrics, like thermometers, you
check in periodically and see how changes occur
over time.” 
 

          liberal artist                            liberalarts grad
 
Do you supposed these 2 can Just Get Along?  Would
they enjoy  each other’s company? Courses?
 
What’s the difference between LIBERAL ART  and
the Liberal Arts? That was the point of origin, origination,
inauguration, instigation, author authorizing… Which  
Elizabeth. supplied.  In what other course would the
ORIGIN of Converse-Action be acknowledged and
appreciated? Someone has to originate: get the ball rolling.
Start up the universe ofconverse action.
 
THAT right there is a difference. from them liberal art
courses you major and minor where no one has to
originate, take initiative  put IT in play:
the Have-TO & the Not-Necessarily
ratios. 
 
Text on the one hand; (eclipsing context on the other.)
Figure on the one hand;(occluding background on the other.)
 
That’s a BIG DIFFERENCE,  don’t you agree?
In them other courses theagenda is set—you move along.
You get some where, Ground is covered.
Plus: you  have to. Rigor.
 
External motivation.
                               

 





This is my reduced  representation of the Grade-Gun
which provides the structure and  cohesion, regulation,
management  and cooperation of ALL  institutionalized
so-called “study.” 
 
I say “so-called study” because it is induced,  caesarean-like
force-it engagement—not anywhere close to the  internally
motivated liberal art where the urge isproperly “stunned”
and “stunning”  and compulsive and obsessive  and any
who fall in love with  some deal,  practice, sport, art
(amateur: for the love of it) knows what I’m talking
about and there’s  no comparison.
 
                   The  2 realms are incommensurate.  Look:
 
A. Imagine living inside an environment of AMATEURISM
—practicing“this” or “that” for the love of it, for the hell of,
for  the immediategratification that comes with playing piano,
downhill skiing, sellinginsurance, running for civic office,
photographing freaks… Let the bum on the beach
(above) Stand-For amateurism
 
B. Imagine living inside an environment  of professionalism
—studying“this” or “that” because you need the credit and
 the grade and therecommendation and the resume.  Practical,
yes? Responsible! Mature deferred gratification so as to
become a banker, lawyer,brain surgeon. school principle.
[The man under the clock: lethim Stand-For professionalism]
 
For one living in the VALUES of A—those of  B would be  
incongruous, so different as to be hostile and untranslatable
into A terms without a terrible violence to B
 
Living in the VALUES of B—those of  A would be incongruous—
waste of  time, indeterminate, messy full of error-ing—hostile
and untranslatable into B terms without an awful flattening
and reduction of A.
 
That’s what “incommensurate” is. We can not measure
another system (B) in some other system’s terms (A)
without doing aviolence in the  translation.
 
You all know what it’s LIKE to go to regular grade-gun
regulatedand enforced courses.  Have been all your life,
unless home schooled.
 
So THAT is the dominant experience and values system:
your measure (commensurate) and standard for "A"
Courses/Classes.   The culture-closet, convention,
custom. of  "A."
 
Using THAT reference to assess what I claim to be a course
in Liberal  ART (I often call it “stupid club”—seeing as “study”
and “student”derives form the notion stunning and stupid:
struck to  a stupor by astick. )  my course/classes are always
in opposition and in conflict withthe values of the standard norm.
It makes good sense.
 
They have no directly instrumental and applied agenda.
They are not grade-gun (though they are work-option) regulated,  
controlled. They waste get-r-done time: constellate, digress, go
round & round and maybe spiral—or not. The subject-topic
of the course is the course itself, re-originating itself each session,
zero-basing and starting up from old scratch.Unpredictable
(though predicable n its unpredictability), indeterminate. 
 
I call it cultivating local food for thought. 
So much is usually imported from beyond.
 
Look: I love to try, but I can not JUSTIFY what I do for
any understandably loyal to the standard. It’d be like
Jesse James trying to justify his love—for all them women
AND  for Sandra Bullock too.

She’s not going to buy it, and who can blame her?
 The philandering  AMATEUR (lover) will always be
an offense to the monogamous  family-value-ist:

Jesse?  oh he’s just getting off his jollies, says Ms Bullock.
Doubt he’ll ever grow up
 

xxxooo, Sam