Compose & Be Composed

Dear Colleaguess,

                  AUTOPOESIS
From Greek αὐτo- (auto-), meaning "self", and
ποίησις (poiesis), meaning "creation, production")
literally means "self-creation" & expresses a fundamental
dialectic between structure, mechanism and function. The
term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists
Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela:

Inspired by Sebastian's chapbook collection of poets
responding to Wendell Barry's  comments on the value
of poetry  (to make, compose): 

It is amateur's work,
                                              lovers work.

(What we now call "professionalism"
is anathema to it.) 

                                         Wendell Berry

Amateur on the one hand.
Professional on the other hand.
Can you tell the difference? The relationship?

       (also known as Hawkings 2 Economies)

I remember suggesting to Ann Turkle, her continual
aggravation  over the professional administrative tangle
of Required Composition (as opposed to the joys of
composing we as "amateurs" love and encourage).

    "why  don't you drop the  REQUIREMENT?
 Let courses in Composition Across the Curriculum
                            be voluntary."

"It's not going to happen, Sam."  Her reply. Conviction.
Might as well deny the virgin birth.  It undercuts  the
whole profession of faith. Professionally Anathematic..

Never the less:

Imagine all the Varieties of Composing Experience
that might be offered across the curriculum: From
Witherspoon to Spidel,  to Jensen,  past the gazebo &
points north to Kittredge and Holden, each a mecca
of composing-of-a-certain kind.   Composing galore.

Compose and Be Composed. The heart of our liberal
art: lovers work.  Priceless.

                   *************
           MORE AMATEURISM
           (un-professionalism)

           The "Conviction of 'Sin'"
         (I.E. esse: "essence," "being")
              an immaculate concept
       flying in on the wings of a  dove,
             say:  certainly nothing
         one would conjure up without
         the help of Goedel's Theorem,
         might as well ask Joe Fish to
         define wet let alone conceive
           of dry: it makes no sense.
             Amniotic. Hysterical.

Even while we maintain the status quotidian
of classroom contact hours,  quizzes to reinforce
readings & lectures, guided discussions & term
papers, attendance protocol& required advising
to guide & structure students toward frontiers
yet unknown...

            Preserving the Algorithm
                     syllabus (contract)
           * lecture-to-discussion ratios
          * attendance policy
          * reading and writing assignments
               (texts, term & semester papers)
          * quizzes and examination policy
          * deadline policy (late penalties)
          * presentation/poster policies
          * assessment and evaluation policy
          * diagnosed learning disability policy
 
I wonder if the whole teacher-to-student
learning & expressing experience might at
the same time be re-composed: tossed up
for grabs,  put in play so as to reinvent wheels
up from old scratch: zero-based thinking: call
it  pre-critical thinking or meta critical
thinking:

what?  what the? what the hell? What if?
kind of thinking (not-so-critical) we used
                    to  call B.S.:

Brain Storming. Blue Sky-ing.
Bully  Stochasticizing and of course
Bullshitting  of the kind that enables
the questioning of authority, assumptions,
under lying controlling and mixed meta force, 
questioning everything which of course is
disruptive and demoralizing  unless
disruption for re-moralization is
embraced as  aim, goal, and
not so easily measured
outcomes.

And keeping-it-in-play (sustained & sustainable
BS-ing) for as  long as it takes before agenda-&-
thesis-driven  measurable goals, outcomes, 
finished product and professional dead
lines  take over as they  must and
have their  professional way with
us because  after all is said and
done we are professional
and must comply.

Complicit.

xxxooo, Sam