Sunday, March 28, 2010

Dream School...

Michael Drout has posted an interesting vision of his pedagogical dream over at his blog.  I think this post presents an intersection of many interests on this blog: academics, pedagogy, educational systems/institutions, and the medieval (to name a few of the first things that strike me).  There is certainly a lot to unpack in his post, and I'm hoping for some of your collective input on the idea.  What are the aspects of cultural wealth and liabilities (to use Martin's terms--which are always, forevermore, with me) inherent in this type of project?  Could such ideals be presented in other types of educational curricula (e.g. public high schools, other sites of education in our society)?

My first reactions to Drout's vision is favororable: after all, I will be looking for a teaching/research/academic job of my own in about 4 years, and this type of opportunity would be great.  My own desires to see opportunities like the one Drout proposes is especially fueled by increasingly public discussions of the role(s) of humanities in educational institutions, and the anxieties surrounding jobs in these areas (for a few examples of the emerging dialog, see articles here [esp. this one!], here, herehere, and here).  Also, I'm largely a proponent of presenting students with the complexities of higher level academics at the high school level; in large part, I think my senior-year English teacher did this (esp. with mythology and medieval literature), and I continue to carry those influences on my life.  I see a lot of Jane Roland Martin's own ideas coming out here, in terms of cultural wealth and liabilities, and I think this opens up a lot of theoretical space for thinking about the ways in which society presents information and education.  Drout's ideas do well to bring out the ways in which society may need to reshape such (re)presentations.  For example, is one of our cultural liabilities the ways in which we conceptualize academics as the "White Tower" of the University or Academy?  With a school like Drout has envisioned, could one of our inherent cultural wealths be the opportunity to push some students toward new intellectual avenues?

Essentially, I'm hoping that these intersecting ideas will help spark a new form of dialog--touching on many of the issues brought out before, but also pointing toward other issues to frame how academics and society intersect.

12 comments:

Leslie said...

Oh, Brandon, I wish I was still educated. I really don't understand all your fancy school talk.

But from what I understand of the entry you linked, it sounds like a fabulous and interesting idea with loads of promise.

You planning on signing up?

Unknown said...

If we only have a perfect world, this idea and promises will exist... If we are on a perfect world.




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