“Education is a subject on which we all feel that we have something to say. We have all been educated, more or less; and we have, most of us, complaints to make about the defects of our own education; and we all like to blame our educators, or the system within which they were compelled to work, for our failure to educate ourselves.”That comes near the outset of T. S. Eliot’s essay “The Aims of Education,” included in the posthumously published collection To Criticize the Critic and Other … [Read more...] about Does Education Have an Aim?
T. S. Eliot
Preserving a Culture
As I have rather frequently noted, when asked about the learning goals for my classes, I always reply, “To help students learn to read Shakespeare for Pleasure.” Since most of my classes are in the Economics department, this answer always strikes people as a bit, well, odd. But, I am not joking when I say that. To say that we learn economics in order to learn to read Shakespeare for pleasure is making a cultural argument. The study of economics is part of a larger intellectual culture, one … [Read more...] about Preserving a Culture
The Wishing Game
Let’s play the “You get three wishes” game. (And, yes, "ixnay on the wishing for more wishes.") Here is the challenge: Can you craft a wish which cannot be subverted? Terry Pratchett’s novel, Eric, is, like all Discworld novels, a mash-up parody of innumerable other things. In this case, the primary objects of mockery are Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Homer, the Aztecs, and Dante. As with all Discworld novels, it is marvelous fun. In the novel Eric tries to summon a demon so he can … [Read more...] about The Wishing Game