Today I had to write a map quiz for my Latin American History course. My heart sank a little when one of my younger classmates complained, with vehemence, that "I'll be so pissed off if I don't get perfect." Let's leave aside, for the moment, the implication that this person's life revolves, to some degree, around a number on a piece of paper - and ask the real question - why is this person in that room? Why does one go to class?
Most of your professors would probably argue that you go to class to "get educated." In all likelihood, your subsequent question: what does it mean to be educated, would receive a mix of responses - in some form or another - "To develop a love of learning."
If we're there, as they say, to develop a love of learning, then what do a couple figures on a sheet of paper really mean?
One of my favorite professors often associates intellectualism with this love of learning, and with good reason, as attributing "intellectualism" or being "smart" to knowing a set of facts, or some set of experiences, is short-sighted and denigrates the value of learning itself. Socrates was most famous for recognizing this futility of using objective knowledge as a basis for measuring the wisdom of a philosopher. He claimed to be the wisest amongst his peers because he knew he knew nothing, and more specifically, because he was not afraid to say so.
What I ask, is that you ask yourself - what would Socrates have thought of marks?
I've reflected on the former question much over the past summer. My summary conclusion is that marks do mean something. They mean something to non-intellectuals - to those who have not yet developed a love of learning. However, they don't just matter to the non-intellectual student; they also mean something to their non-intellectual would-be employer. Set aside the motivational effects of marking and what you're left with is a system where marks are sought out and used by non-intellectuals in order to impress other non-intellectuals.
What's really trivial? Learning a map, or getting emotionally escalated over a couple figures?
No comments:
Post a Comment