It's not ABOUT what-it's-about!

 
It's Not About what-it's-about

Dear Colleagues.

One of Fish's underlying assumptions is that a
student evaluation program broadly affects the
social and political environment of a school…
Fish's assertions of the deleterious effects of
student evaluations on educational integrity are
startlingly strong.
 
What is the counter-action against such effects?
He points out that in the case of state funded schools,
political pressure is mounting to move toward an
educational model based on short-term consumer
satisfaction as the de facto educational measure.
 
He also points out that this pressure undermines
intellectual freedom and the academy's purpose
to pursue knowledge.     (Ron B. on Fish)
 
Snicker.
 
Got to snicker when any one starts up with the
intellectual freedom and the pursuit of knowledge
kind of talk. True?
 
Be honest.
 
Raise your hand  if intellectual freedom and
pursuit of knowledge is what you bet to be the
motivation of  students and faculty. 
Seriously.
 
It’s a way of talking, sure.
Graduation-speak, Matriculation-speak.
It’s THE way of talking for doing strategic
planning and applying for grants: Full Bright,
 
But can we separate
1) our Ways of Talking from
2) actual Motivation without demoralization
and maybe not let the 2 interfere and confuse?
 
I doubt it, but it’s still worth wondering.
 
These incoming First Year Seminarians:
intellectual freedom and the pursuit of
knowledge?  Is that how you characterize
them  & what drives them?
 
And us?
 
What rules?
 
Assess.
 
Can you imagine a context (environment) where
CLARITY would raise a snicker? Success tickle
a snort?   Consistency a hobgoblin, precision
anomaly, predictability a liability? 
Uncertainty, of course, goes
without saying. And
ontingency  
 
Noise the mother of news? 
 
Think Environmentally
 
Consider the context that encourages collaborative
genius (Keith Sawyer) —not to be mistaken for
individual genius, or inter-disciplinary, where
constraints and standards of  professional
disciplinarity rule and the “inter” don’t
make no never mind: it’s still
disciplinary.
 
Think Environmentally.
 
I’m not talking about pelicans and polar  bears.
Anyone can feel bad about them and drive to  
Louisiana, write your congressman,  organize
demonstrations in Asheville, click  Face Book
links that ally you with concerned citizens,
send  money etc.
 
No, I mean  Environment of another color,
 
Our collective Frame of Mind:
Shared Attitude, Local Feedback
of internal if not eternal & certainly
not just external Affairs and  resources:
 
an environment that can only be described
as LUDIC:  where primarily the play of
intellectual freedom and the pursuit of
knowledge rules the roosting 
 
Just riffing here—off Stanly Fish and
Ron Bashford … putting IT in play.  
Environmentalism.
 
Hackysacking. If I’m making any sense,
I  got lucky, is all.  Clarity isn’t
the point.  It’s not about
clarity. It’s not about
taking out the
trash.
 
xxxooo, Sam