Replying to LO28107 --
Greetings Leo,
You ask and say:
Dennis, Did I lament? That was not the purpose of my contribution. But if
so, or if the impression is here, I like to say some extra words.
I have just been reading some excerpts from "The Power of Now" by Eckhart
Tolle and a quote in it goes like this:
"to meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise
is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe"
It was my mental noise that caused my selection of the word lament. You
go on and say:
I intended to describe the changements at Dutch and European universities
in a neutral way. The thing is that it is so easy to critisize as older
generations like to do to youth and 'modern' developments. And maybe I
become like my own father :-) in his old days.
I consider my Dad's thinking belied his age yet in some things I
stubbornly held to my opinion believing he wished me to take a stance
belonging in the past. And with my own children I think the same
situation arises time and again. With them I have graduated from biting
the tongue to biting the brain - I analyse what I think before I consider
saying it - and yes I slip up at times and I believe it is easier for my
children to question me than it was for me to question my Dad.
I am not sure yet about some of the outcomes of recent developments in the
university world. There are absolute positive things: the beginning of
removing the walls between disciplines and faculties. Inter- and possibly
even transdisciplinary studies are born in recent time. International
relationships between Universities and the possibility to exchange
students is a great thing in my opinion. To fascilitate these
exchangements, the language problem has to be solved and it is not a
strange idea to introduce the internationally accepted language of scinece
- English.
In all that I experience and read, learning institutions be they schools,
universities, monasteries etc greatly influence the societies in which
they exist and their fingers extend into other countries and societies.
Approaching my mid 50's I am still wending my way toward a degree (by
correspondence) and the distance learning institution I have been enrolled
with (for too long it seems) recently formed an alliance with the Open
University of UK. "International relationships" and that sits easy with
me. Nor am opposed to an international language. In Papua New Guinea
there are 700 dialects and their universal language is Pidgin English yet
it is not at the expense of their own.
The drawbacks of all these positive initiatives is that these initiatives
are developed by policy makers, not by the people who are supposed to work
under these new circumstances. It are not initiatives which grew from
below. And I am realy afraid that therefore a long period of unsuccessful
experiments will start, and tha a new generation of students will not
receive wha they deserve. The strange thing however will be that these
students will not no it. They are so to say the frogs that will be boiled.
And thanks to the mirror that you showed me, I was rethinking my own
student time at the university. I was and am still enthousiastic about my
received education. I studied in a revolutionary time at universities -
the late sixties early seventies of the former century. So also at that
time there was a lot of changement. And who knows the comments of the
older generation at that time?
What you say here Leo highlights what I have seen as a dilema for some
years now. I often think of it like this: When you are young and wish to
change the world you have a certain recipe in mind. By the time you get
to a position to be a policy maker your ideas are dated and you stunt the
growth of the young - boil them when they are tadpoles.
In my working life I see policy makers downsizing workforces without
analysing the situation or involving the people who have to work in the
downsized conditions, pretty soon there is no organisation left because
several of the "minions" let go actually did work that was important to
the longevity of the organisation.
Dennis, I am still optimistic for the long run. However the trajectory
will pass some deep depressions too. I am optimistc, because I think/hope
that within a few years enough persons at universities will see (again)
the great importance of close relationships between teacher and student.
Distant learning and grabbing blindly all information fron Internet will
diminish soon.
Leo in my knowing there is no better way of learning than in a close
relationship with your teacher whether that teacher be a friend,
colleague, Mum, Dad or the teacher from an institution. Yet in my
circumstance I have been enrolled for some time with a Distance Learning
Inst. My solitary frustration with Microsoft Word, Excel, Project and
other software have played their part in my education and by watching the
young it is my contention that it will be some considerable time before
Distance Learning and the Internet will lose their influence on the world
of learning.
Regards to you Leo and to fellow list members,
Dennis.
--"Dennis Rolleston" <dennisr@ps.gen.nz>
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