Postlude
“What I’m mainly interested in,” said Gregory.
“is a formal description of the ways in which
human planning and applied science tend
to generate pathology:
in the society or in the
eco-system or in
the individual.”
***
How can Ivory Tower Bullshitting be Justified in
these days of Turbulence, Rising Gas Prices
and Fewer Entry-Level Career Jobs?
More & Less a question asked during the last
8 am session of a Scoville Class.
Always a decent question. And important. A
liberal art question, which is to say, one that
questions authority if not everything.
From last November:
Origins of ORDER & Original Spin
“I thought I was signing up for a class on 19th
century authors, but it’s actually a bunch of
freshman and sophomore philosophy majors
circle-jerking about chugging beer through
their ass, and how the environment is staging
its own uprising against humankind.
And the thing is, the professor seems to love it…
Also, I’m pretty sure someone was doing yoga
on the floor the other day during class. And
nobody fucking cared.”
What happens when rigor is rolled over like a
rotting log: antsy pantsy riot & random flow:
un-channeled by agenda, aim, purpose,
measurable outcomes and known frontiers?
Anarchy
And consequently: chaos --a great gaping yawn:
a beggar's bowl of helter & skelter. Possibilities?
Potential? O my yes! O my no ! Yes indeed.
No No No.
Send in police & polite policy political correctness.
Toss the clowns. No Comic relief need apply.
Order in the Court!
Can’t afford the chaos. Not these daze. Not at these
rates. Can any justification be made for such a waste
time after time?
For the time being wasting time may be what time’s
good for a little while. But I can't defend IT.
ITs indefensible. IT I said. Do I always
got to be spelling IT out?
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Getting rid of the formal description, the sit-up-and-sit-straight grade-gunning of mass education (even in small, liberal art institutes) that occurs these days also serves to absolve the system of some of it’s inborn pathologies. Regurgitation of information, lack of digestibility (want of nutrition, not need), is propagated in classrooms where there’s too much structure.
ReplyDeleteThat’s hilarious, that poor kid wanting a 19th century lecture, wanting to discuss Poe (and believe me, I identify), when they’re just getting yoga in the classroom. “And nobody fucking cared.” Ha!
It’s a hard balance between grade-guns and yoga studios. When rigor is rolled over like a rotting log there’s place and space for creativity clinging to anarchy’s coat tails, but if it’s just a yoga studio all the bending and flexibility gets in the way of directed get-er-done. It’s easy to fill the bowl with the product of a circle-jerk, but most want more from academia.
That chaos puts pressure on people, I think. You get what you give when there’s an open space of nothing, but in classrooms I think folks are used to getting what they’re given, not giving what they want.
Can't afford rigor! Not these days, not when all the sheep want is a bellweather! Too much hand-holding and crosswalking dependency, if you ask me. Save it for the old ladies who need it.
-MAY
It's an environmental issue, I claim. Rationalize. In defense. How to get from grade-gun order to group collaborative inquiry, without the grade-gun forcing the transition. 40 years in the wildness between Egypt and a Promised Land with Giants? The transition is crucial, excruciating. Ouch, ooo, shit, damnit, yes, Yes, YES ???
ReplyDeleteP.S. I decided I want to be a college professor a few years ago. Although I like your lack of order, I couldn't get behind it in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI want to balance; ask for projects if students didn't want to be there, attendance optional, but I'd grade those projects and papers down to the improperly applied semi-colon (and those are so tricky), much less content and citations, better get your words in order. Yoga okay as long as you did the reading and are prepared to get tested on Husserl's internal time consciousness in lotus pose. If you didn't read, then I don't care how straight up you sit get the hell out. Probably wouldn't work like that. Whada I know, after all?
Teaching: it'd give me an excuse for bi-polarity and obsession (talk about pathology!)
-MAY [[Cake and Eat IT too--don't blame you/ Controlled out-of-control. Hard Balls and Mallets croquet. Do what you want as long as you please me. I understand. I quit grading and correcting years ago because it interfered with the process of making sense and my delight in bullshitting toward the light and the pleasure of response. I once had a colleague get tied up in small knots over a split infinitive so that the spirit of the peace was eclipsed. Forest and trees.