Week Five: Not Pronounced "Play-dough"
This week's readings focus on the classical origins of higher education. Although Plato was not the most influential thinker of his own day, his thought ultimately has the greatest impact on Western civilization of any philosopher at any time in history. Futhermore, Cicero and Quintilian are amongst the foremost thinkers who equate education with civic participation.
- Monday
- Further Discussion of Corder, Lakoff, Burke and all things rhetoric
- Invention: Stream of Consciousness writing activity
- Homework:
- Complete draft of Project 1, Part D for class Wednesday. Be sure to bring a digital copy of the project to class (if you are not saving it on your H drive)
- Wednesday
- Project 1, Part D Peer Review Day
- Homework:
- Read: Coursepack--selections from Plato, Cicero and Quintilian
- Forum Topic 9:
Origins of Univeristy: The Greeks and Romans
- Consider for a moment that these readings are about 2400 years old. Holy shit. Now respond to one of the following prompts:
- Plato's parable of the cave is considered one of the foundational metaphors for education. Why? Is this how you conceptualize education? How does Plato's metaphor frame the general public? What are some of the implications of this metaphor? Can you be a Platonist and believe in democracy? Why or why not?
- These readings are often cited as the foundation of our contemporary university. Thoughts? What do these readings identify as the purpose of education? What do they stress that still shows up today? What's dropped out? How do Plato and Cicero compare--what's most important to each? If you had to summarize each in a single word, what would it be (do not say "boring")?
- Consider for a moment that these readings are about 2400 years old. Holy shit. Now respond to one of the following prompts:
- Forum Topic 10: Open Discussion of Peer Review Day
- What projects did you like?
- Did you see our readings / class discussions showing up in the projects?
- Reflections on your project--did you learn anything surprising?
- Thursday
- Discussion of readings
- Homework:
- Read: Coursepack--Readings on the Enlightenment and German University (a.k.a. Bildung), selections from Kant, von Humboldt, Conant, & Halloran
- Forum Topic 11: Origins of University: The Germans & Americans
- Project One, Part D will be posted to Drupal on Wednesday of Week Six
- Conferences
- Format: Teams of two, ten minutes
- Goal: Review Project One, Part D. This is a good time to bring up "technical difficulties."
- Preparation: Be sure to have digital copies of Project One, Part D available.