Do tell.

o.k. i'm not going to go into Foucault's notion of power or the panopticon, but you can read about it here: http://cartome.org/foucault.htm Here are some preliminary thoughts about how our concept of education is skewed by the emphasis on schooling (this is a sketch of some questions I'd like to explore in one chapter on the dissertation)-- Schooling and Culture How does the existence of institutions that carry an explicitly educational function work to color our understanding of how education works in culture? The demand that the school create critical thinkers relieves pressure on other cultural forces to do the same. The consequences of this seem to me to be two-fold. First, the schools are placed in the difficult position of maintaining critical pedagogical methods in the face of larger powers (like advertising agencies) that have an explicit interest in either co-opting those methods for their own purposes or undermining those methods. Secondly, public outcry about the lack of critical education is mis-directed. It is aimed at under-funded schools and tired teachers and administrators rather than at the larger cultural forces that have something to gain by undermining critical intelligence. For all of our efforts at school reform, we have gained very little and perhaps lost ground. My sense is that we have not lost ground because of a lack of effort, but because the conceptual and institutional site of education has not been properly identified. The site of education is no narrower than the site of culture. Hospitals, government agencies, police officers, racial geography, architecture, fast-food joints, tractors, interstates, computers, tax forms, and airplanes are all educators and should be criticized as such. A key component of developing a critical concept of education will be freeing it from the notion of schooling, which tends to re-inscribe the barrier between the site of intelligence and the site of practice by making us blind to the educational effects of institutions and bodies that are not explicitly identified as schools.

I like beer.

Dammit, Trent. You've exposed me as a pompous academic who thinks he's smarter than everybody else. I was hoping to keep that secret for a few more months. I might have to write a paper about anti-intellectual currents in American life and how that keeps us smarter folks down. That'll convince you all!

anti-intellectual currents in American life

In real life, I usually don't come right out and tell folks I'm a doc. My answer to what I do is usually, "I work at Vandy".

In real life, I usually don't come right out and tell folks I'm a doc. My answer to what I do is usually, "I work at Vandy".

Try telling people you're a philosopher. They usually step back and to the side as if it's contagious. Or maybe it's that stank.

What the....? [backs away sowly]

Distance: 1000.9 Miles? Prick.