Toward Some Philosophy of Teaching

 
Rigor and Innovation and can they
Just Get Along?    
 
Rigor: hard ain’t it hard & lot’s of  work,
lots of reading and writing, maybe lots
of quizzes and tests to force compliance.
Strict evaluation and assessment. No one
gets A for crying out loud—over my dead
body. Got to maintain & sustain the rigor.
Otherwise, them other courses'll  collapse
mine, know  what I mean. It's a doggie
dog whirl.

(“He may be tough, but he’s GOOOD,
that Scoville. Rigorous! I’ll probably
name my first-born after  him. )
 
Innovation. Where do new ideas come from?
Stork? Bundle of unpostponed joy? Not just
new ideas, but New ideas? Not just New ideas—
but NEW ideas? Can you tell the difference?
new, New, NEW?  And the relationship?
 
Name the last time you had a new idea.  
Or a New one.  Maybe even A NEW one.
No seriously: put  it into words—your own
experience with ideas, new, New, and NEW.
 
We can come up with a theory of innovation,
an emerging value and phenomenon of our
own. Local Food, so to speak across our
curriculum.

“Digital technology has transformed the
market  from one based on industrial
production to an information economy
fueled by ideas.”
 
As the new world runs increasingly ahead
of the old,  social systems invariably break
down only to be dramatically reinvented to
better  suit the new environment to which
human beings have already relocated.
                        (Downes: Law of Disruption)
 
  Existence precedes Essence.
                Rigormortis precedes Innovation.