From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2019 18:46:08 +0000 (+0300) Subject: Draft for the teacher's role X-Git-Tag: v0.11~70 X-Git-Url: https://git.mogosanu.ro/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=248f21e11d5ae2856790ddbce794e5a3e57b30cd;p=thetarpit.git Draft for the teacher's role --- diff --git a/drafts/000-the-teachers-role.markdown b/drafts/000-the-teachers-role.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf0bc45 --- /dev/null +++ b/drafts/000-the-teachers-role.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +postid: 000 +title: The teacher's role +date: April 8, 2019 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: cogitatio +--- + +[i] Knowledge, in its general sense[^1], is structured as a set of +[trees][btcbase-1881723] whose ramifications stem from +[concepts][btcbase-1631714][^2], which interact with each other +linguistically in [complex manners][btcbase-1587276]. + +[ii] The child, having gone through the direct experience of +[tree parsing][trilema-ai] is at some point left entirely baffled by the +complexity of the process' output -- "[two plus two][two-plus-two]" is, +weirdly enough, more than the simple sum of "plus" and "two", and the +relations between all these things only keep growing in number as one +advances through the trees. Eventually, trees will have structured +themselves into trees-of-trees and trees-of-trees-of-trees and so on, +while, even more baffingly, the danger of circularity lies at every +turn. + +[iii] In the face of this maze, the role of the teacher then becomes +apparent: the teacher will see to it that the child's knowledge trees +are correctly constructed. More concretely, the former is to guide the +latter in this journey of navigating the trees, pruning the +[diseased branches][cockroaches], while tending to the healthy ones. + +[iv] The teacher, however, isn't going to be around forever; and +moreover, the child, assuming it intellectually capable of navigating +the trees of knowledge, has in it the potential of becoming +[human][humanity], and moreover, a teacher himself, so that him, or +herself is able to raise humans. + +[v] Thus, through training, emerges a reflective meta-cognitive process: +the child learns *how to learn*, i.e. how to navigate the tree himself, +and tend to it, being guided by a set of pillars set in ground by the +teacher -- the so-called *basic* notions, the ones without which the +trees will collapse into an eventual [nothing][death]. + +[vi] Having identified these two essential components that together form +the teacher's role, we can, conversely, identify what is *not* the +teacher's role. The teacher isn't to "make things +[more accessible][btcbase-1880015]", this is only what an anti-teacher +would do; he isn't there to provide his student with +"[the facts][just-the-facts]". + +[vii] This process of anti-teaching leads in the very best case to +individuals who are [less than impressed][btcbase-1907214], in the very +literal sense: deep inside, there is very little there to impress upon, +and thus indeed not much [to discuss][btcbase-1907689]. + +[^1]: Into which we won't delve, mainly because of the difficulty of + taking an entire branch of philosophy that's studied it for millenia + and fitting it into this modest page. Suffice it to say that the + proximate genus of knowledge is belief, while the specific + difference comprises at least truth and justification. + +[^2]: The proximate genus of the concept is representation. The specific + difference is... well, this is where I'll have to admit that my + philosophical muscle is so weak that I daren't go further. + +[btcbase-1881723]: http://btcbase.org/log/2018-12-19#1881723 +[btcbase-1631714]: http://btcbase.org/log/2017-03-23#1631714 +[btcbase-1587276]: http://btcbase.org/log/2016-12-21#1587276 +[trilema-ai]: http://trilema.com/2017/my-three-days-of-ai/#selection-9100.0-9112.5 +[two-plus-two]: /posts/y03/05f-two-plus-two.html +[cockroaches]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=cockroaches +[humanity]: /posts/y01/032-your-worth-to-humanity.html +[death]: http://trilema.com/2019/radical-feminism-in-the-romanian-fin-de-siecle/#selection-444.0-444.5 +[btcbase-1880015]: http://btcbase.org/log/2018-12-12#1880015 +[just-the-facts]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=just+the+facts +[btcbase-1907214]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-04-07#1907214 +[btcbase-1907689]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-04-08#1907689 +[btcbase-1907689]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-04-08#1907689