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Education-zen
January 27, 2010Posted By Michael Doneman
"The problem of the steady change of ideas (or the perpetual need to imagine new ideas) also demolishes the notion that the essence of education consists in mastering certain contents or materials. You are not little birdies sitting in the nest with your mouths open to receive half-digested worms of knowledge regurgitated by the faculty. Education is not about content. It is not even about skills. It is a habit or stance of mind. It is not something you have. It is something you are." So says educator Andrew Abbott. To work towards 'progressing' our skills and capacities, as if this was just some kind of iterative and cumulative process - that is, as if we were merely intelligent machines - is a limiting concept.
