Principia College - Sheaf Yearbook (Elsah, IL)

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lVIotivation::Education Usually we learn from someone else's ideas. We don't trust our own at all. This is what Prin- cipia is working with diligently today. We are developing the concept that we have infinite re- sources with which to learn, that we can trust our own thinking, that we can trust our own powers of observation, and that teachers can trust the students to come up with good ideas on their own. There is an excitement to education that is really your own. When you're motivated, when you are the person who's interested in your ed- ucation, it can be the most exciting thing. It's fun, it's refreshing, and it's not tiring. The world has been assuming for years that students are too dumb to know what's good for them. I don't think that we do always know what's good for somebody else. Lecture method --yes, the good old traditional kind of education --is the most effective way of learning material But you can't teach material to someone who isn't ready to learn. A course should never be taken by someone who isn't ready to take it. I have a radical idea about required courses: if a course is so important that it should be requir- ed, well then, it ought to be so good that every- body wants to take it. We've all known for years and years that a child learns more outside a school than he learns in school. And I'm talking now about the kindergarten child through 5th and 6th grade. We know that when he is walking beside the river- bank, he is learning about tadpoles. He watches them and he can figure it out. We know that, yet we ignore it time and again in American educa- tion as it is today. A lot of exciting kinds of education can go on right here. Then we'll see Principia and we'll see education as more than just twenty chairs facing forwards. We'll be here for a specific purpose, and we'll know why we're here, and we'll be excited to be here. - - Candy Nartonis 26

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The study of literature deals directly with hu- man life. Nowhere else in the curriculum is there such a thorough going discussion of the mingled yarn of life as it is lived--not abstract- ed by statistics, philosophy, or historical con- structs. Literature probes into the emotions, conflicts, decisions, and values, and depicts the ways of meeting these challenges. Instead of the bare bones of mathematics, philosophy, sci- ence, or politicsg literature offers the full structure of life, with the flesh, skin, culture, and habits. Hence, the ENGLISH DEPARTMENT affords training in the less definable aspects of life, and education in human values. . L' L.. Since the EDUCATION DEPARTMENT is pri- marily concerned with learning - -with how one learns--with learning as individual growth-- the majority of its courses are relevant to non- majors as Well as to majors in the field. Learning is approached as a present experi- ence as well as a process to be examined. Only as the individual realizes it in himself is he in a position to promote learning in others. 5

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Emphasis in Academics The problem with our learning right now is that none of it is clicking. We're all told, 'Don't Worry, you'll understand it. ' I don't think stu- dents ARE Luiderstanding what this broad liberal arts training has led them to. If you say it's led you to be a better learner, it seems like an empty victory--especially when your pockets are empty, and you' re looking for employment and all you can say to an employer is, 'Well, I'm a learner. ' The difficulty as evidenced in employment problems after college, is that We've been so obsessed with learning how to learn that We've forgotten to apply it. We've forgotten to learn anything. it's a more profound problem than just the fact that there aren't any jobs, because there ARE jobs. There aren't any employees. The World wants skill 3 the world wants intelligence, energy, and a demonstrated ability to achieve. The need is two-fold. We need a wide aca- demic breadth, the whole man. We need a man who KNOWS what it's like to run a mile, what it's like to do a lab, what it's like to analyze a poem, what it's like to learn a language. How- ever, this breadth sometimes can lead to great shallowness. Therefore we also need to have a depth experience. Unless you know what concen- trated Work in a field is, you'll never be able to concentrate in any area or field. Simply intellectualizing about the learning pro- cess isn't going to make you a learner, isn't going to make you learned. We'Ve got to realize that learning to learn does not necessarily pre- clude the acquisition of knowledge. It seems to me that We are so hung up on talking about how to learn to learn that We forget there's another Way--learning. l think this move toward the understanding that learning is more than a teacher filling empty vessels is a marvelous progression. But at the same time we run the danger of over- reacting, of saying, in fact, we're all empty vessels. 'Education' comes from the Latin 'educere'--to lead out. Leading out implies to me coming from something and going to something, not just realizing that you are walking. --Clark Beim- Esche aa: uri. -J' -, - Xlygzga- tr. . 5 1 mil' J K s 5, Q i, ! ' . 3 ' '.- 1 f ' ffl. 'a-f paw ' 31' ' 1, ': i.Q5 g :gsx 'sx N L zpftiaf ll ',' I 23 ' K' ,I fi: J' 6'5',' z' : 2 'Q ,az .5 Q -I 5- Q . '1 u-.ul