Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The Perfect Student, is there really such a thing, or is this a mythic creature like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Certainly, there are differing definitions of what it means to be a good student, and lots of variety even within those defensible definitions, so, although no absolute and final right answer might exist, there are some that are closer to the truth than others.
According to the diagram created by an John Butler, who was annoyed with how students chose to describe themselves, the perfect student is a finely attuned machine, created to record and repeat myriad data. This composition professor claims the perfect student has "camera eyeballs, which register reality as it really is," and a movie projector brain that also projects reality as it really is. These details, and the professor's annoyance with them, suggest that the professor wishes things were not so, that students were something slightly different than how they describe themselves. So, what is this professor's issue with these descriptions? Why isn't a movie projector brain the best manner in which to describe oneself as a student? Why isn't an eyeball that records reality as it really is of benefit to a student in a composition classroom?
I can make a stab at answering these questions. I might suggest these are inadequate definitions of how a good student operates because they are quite simply untrue. Reality is not an objective phenomenon that can be recorded with pinpoint accuracy. Without falling into the trap of too much subjective relativity, I might suggest that reality is a bit more complicated than all that. Certainly, there are elements of the world that are fairly objective -- a desk, a chair, a fast car -- but our individual experience of those things is different, and does change. For example, as a teenager, my experience of a fast car was far different than my experience with the same now, as a 37 year-old male. As a youngster, the fast-car was the pinnacle of cool, something to aspire to, a emblem of status and achievement.
Now, that same fast car means something entirely different. Now, when I look at that fast car, I see mostly inconvenience. I look at the low center of gravity, the molded seats, the 6 speed transmission, and I think how inconvenient, how uncomfortable it would be getting in and out of that car, and what a pain in the ass shifting manually would be, with 6 gears no less. The fast car is no longer a symbol of cool, but more a symbol of a youth culture, of which I am not a part, or, the symbol of a man trying to regain his lost youth, stay young with the buying power that comes with middle age.
So, as you can see, the reality is very different in each case.
The body portion of the perfect student contains a heart of gold, a scale balancing original sin and innate goodness, the scale and heart surrounded by passions, emotions, and feelings that are tempered and in control by virtue of the brain and conscience, coupled with a heart of pure gold. The feet of the perfect student remain firmly grounded.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the body of the perfect student. There's a moral component to the perfect student. They are tainted by original sin, but this taint is overcome and tempered by their innate goodness and heart of gold, so, goodness always wins out, the right is always victorious.
I think this might be dangerous, coupled with the "reality as it is" head. What this might mean is very complex issues are reduced to simple black and white. Capital punishment = wrong (or right, depending on how the perfect student interprets reality), and the perfect student, because they are grounded, and guided by a heart of gold and firm conscience, they are innately, obviously right -- no questions asked.
I think one of the things a good education instills in the learner is the ability to think critically about experience and issues, the ability to recognize the many different ways of understanding any single issue or experience. This student is unconcerned with toying with ideas, or trying to understand an experience, because their heart of gold, emotions, and conscience are always right, and this inevitably limits what this student might learn.
According to the diagram created by an John Butler, who was annoyed with how students chose to describe themselves, the perfect student is a finely attuned machine, created to record and repeat myriad data. This composition professor claims the perfect student has "camera eyeballs, which register reality as it really is," and a movie projector brain that also projects reality as it really is. These details, and the professor's annoyance with them, suggest that the professor wishes things were not so, that students were something slightly different than how they describe themselves. So, what is this professor's issue with these descriptions? Why isn't a movie projector brain the best manner in which to describe oneself as a student? Why isn't an eyeball that records reality as it really is of benefit to a student in a composition classroom?
I can make a stab at answering these questions. I might suggest these are inadequate definitions of how a good student operates because they are quite simply untrue. Reality is not an objective phenomenon that can be recorded with pinpoint accuracy. Without falling into the trap of too much subjective relativity, I might suggest that reality is a bit more complicated than all that. Certainly, there are elements of the world that are fairly objective -- a desk, a chair, a fast car -- but our individual experience of those things is different, and does change. For example, as a teenager, my experience of a fast car was far different than my experience with the same now, as a 37 year-old male. As a youngster, the fast-car was the pinnacle of cool, something to aspire to, a emblem of status and achievement.
Now, that same fast car means something entirely different. Now, when I look at that fast car, I see mostly inconvenience. I look at the low center of gravity, the molded seats, the 6 speed transmission, and I think how inconvenient, how uncomfortable it would be getting in and out of that car, and what a pain in the ass shifting manually would be, with 6 gears no less. The fast car is no longer a symbol of cool, but more a symbol of a youth culture, of which I am not a part, or, the symbol of a man trying to regain his lost youth, stay young with the buying power that comes with middle age.
So, as you can see, the reality is very different in each case.
The body portion of the perfect student contains a heart of gold, a scale balancing original sin and innate goodness, the scale and heart surrounded by passions, emotions, and feelings that are tempered and in control by virtue of the brain and conscience, coupled with a heart of pure gold. The feet of the perfect student remain firmly grounded.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the body of the perfect student. There's a moral component to the perfect student. They are tainted by original sin, but this taint is overcome and tempered by their innate goodness and heart of gold, so, goodness always wins out, the right is always victorious.
I think this might be dangerous, coupled with the "reality as it is" head. What this might mean is very complex issues are reduced to simple black and white. Capital punishment = wrong (or right, depending on how the perfect student interprets reality), and the perfect student, because they are grounded, and guided by a heart of gold and firm conscience, they are innately, obviously right -- no questions asked.
I think one of the things a good education instills in the learner is the ability to think critically about experience and issues, the ability to recognize the many different ways of understanding any single issue or experience. This student is unconcerned with toying with ideas, or trying to understand an experience, because their heart of gold, emotions, and conscience are always right, and this inevitably limits what this student might learn.
