[MD] The Academy is Evil! Here's what I'd do instead...

[John Carl]

Arlo,

Would you accept an answer from somebody who doesn't hold the Academy in
disdain?  But would like to see it improved anyway?


Arlo:
> I'll comment on Mark's answer below, but invite all who hold the Academy in
> disdain to answer the question.
>
> [Mark]
> The only thing that I would suggest is to remain flexible.
>
> [Arlo]
> How flexible? I can easily demonstrate how disciplines have evolved over
> time as new and better information becomes available. But what measures
> would you suggest to improve the flexibility? Let's say a "loose changer" or
> a "flat-earther" comes to you and asks for inclusion in the history and
> geography programs respectively. Do you accommodate? What criteria would you
> suggest the Academy relies on to determine what gets in?
>
>
John:  I agree with Mark on the flexibility issue, and by this I'd say what
it most needs is more tolerance for varieties of religious experience. True
diversity and not the sort of pandering type "ethnic studies" and "women's
studies" that seem to crop up as counters to the status-seeking quo.  Truly
vibrant debate and differing options of interpretation.  Sometimes we see
that, but often we don't.  I guess it's an ongoing struggle, really and
always has been.

I agree that there are schools of thought which are ridiculous and I'm
certainly not a fan of any kind of "anything goes" mentality which throws
open the doors to any nutjob with a holy book and an agenda.  But the
wholesale adoption of a values-free worldview, and the almost
police-state-like imposition of this worldview has crippled true
intellectual debate and growth oughta be checked somehow.


[Mark]
> See the Academy for what it is, a repository of old information creating
> new.
>
> [Arlo]
> I agree. The Academy is about access to old information and thinking about
> new ways to re-envision that information. A part of its mission is certainly
> dissemination, to get as many exposed to these ideas as possible. But that
> is simply the first step in what is best seen as a taxonomic endeavor, which
> (to use Bloom) also includes analysis, synthesis and evaluation of that
> knowledge, which includes the creation of that something new.
>
>
John:

And one of the big problems, I'd say, is that the seeking of status is what
blocks this process.  The whole game where the student is focused mainly on
saying what the teacher wants him to say, so he can go on to the next guy.
Do away with grades, like Pirsig suggested in ZAMM.  Turn them into places
where people go to learn, rather than  get grades and degrees.  If that
could be accomplished somehow, I think we'd see a huge improvement in the
whole thing.  For one thing, it'd overturn the immoral subborning of
intellectual patterns to social ones.

Thanks for asking,

John