Thursday, September 29, 2005


So, does anybody know how I'm supposed to "reach" these kids? Does anyone know how to explain the greatnesses and the tragedies of history in an intelligent way to them? Or should I even try?

2 comments:

Rufus said...

Yeah, I have been thinking about it since I posted that, and I guess that was what helped me- I worked for about five or six years between High School and University. I probably wasn't much better at that age either.

Rufus said...

Well, that's the other problem. Too often we find ourselves trying to teach about art or literature or whatever without coming off as "pedantic", or as those law school pricks phrased it on here "pretentious". But, the "pretentious" argument assumes that we're all essentially boorish frat-boys and should stop pretending otherwise. In other words, get in line and obey.

The love of knowledge for its own sake is one I share, but it seems to fly in the face of American pragmatism. "Read the collected works of Oscar Wilde? How can that make you any money?" The idea of doing anything for pleasure, aside from shopping, seems somehow suspect to people.