RESPONSE

Response



Response

Introduction

The education has been referred by Spayde as training for a competition; he rejects the notion that the education provided in the classroom just offers the theories of living life. Spayde in his article discusses the fast knowledge, slow knowledge and the things which can be comprehended by mere common sense; according to him people can judge for themselves what ought to be done. “It is knowledge shaped and calibrated to fit a particular ecological and cultural context” (Spayde, 2004) he writes, differentiating it as of the 'fast knowledge' that whiz all the way through the terminal of the information society.

Discussion

According to Spayde, the knowledge which, you obtain through the experiences and passage of time is the slow knowledge; people get to know about different traditions and genres without entering the class. Attending classes and noting down the facts is the fast knowledge because these are not learned or practiced in the everyday life; this information is solid fact, therefore, it can be understood easily. "School helps, but it is just the beginning of the engagement between ideas and reality” (Spayde, 2011), I believe that the experiences which, we gain through the course of life can enhance learning in a person's life. School educates an individual about the basics as far as specific subjects such as math and English, but it does not inform a person on cultures and ideas of different types of people.

Though I do not know for sure, I'd bet that Jon Spayde's essay, “Learning in the Key of Life” is a nod to Stevie Wonder's album title “Songs in the Key of Life,”. One of the most important conversations in the history of education is about “the key of life”: how does learning work inside school, how does it work outside of school? Is there a connection? Is it nature or nurture that makes us grow? And whatever the proportions of each, how does a school allow for both? Before the American Revolution, British philosopher John Locke borrowed ideas from Aristotle and Aquinas for his notion of the “tabula rasa”; we're all born with a “clean slate” (Kohn, 2004), upon which our surroundings, our families, our schools, and our experiences build as we continue to learn through our lifetime.

Since then, generations of educators and researchers have shown that we learn by linking new ideas with our prior knowledge. However, if you are a learner, you know that. A college sophomore told me recently that in order to understand his philosophy course ideas he had not encountered before he related them to movies and TV shows he knew. A graduate student I know memorized a list of twenty-seven topics in Aristotle's Rhetoric by linking them to the baseball card collection he had as a child. Certainly, much of school is about learning HOW we learn, and linking what we do not know to what we already know. As a longtime English teacher, I know that all of us “read” our world's first, in order to write ...