Genius and education

From: Lucy Pearson <l_r_pearson@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue Aug 27 2002 - 16:52:47 EDT

 Dear All,

Salinger ambivalent attitude towards education seems
to me one that most of us involved in education can
recognise. He's very hostile to the system and to
specific aspects of the system, for example section
men (I can't really say how justified that particular
pet hate is as we don't generally have them in
England). Personally, I simultaneously depair at some
of the bureaucracy and mediocrity (both in teachers
and students) inherent in the education system and
rejoice at the concept of widely available education
and research. I think that many people feel more
strongly about this at university level because
a. they expect it to be something rather more
advanced, or at least different in emphasis, than high
school, without taking into account the fct that
students can hardly be expected to have transformed
so very much in the six months between the two
 b. when you reach university level you are much more
hihgly involved with the process; you are older,
better educated and more critical and articulate, so
your problems with the system become more focused.

I have been lucky enough to have a series of inspired
teachers over the course of my education, without whom
I would never have achieved what I have. It is this
kind of 'mentor' which Salinger seems to admire, and
in my opinion they are the valuable part of the
education system. If you want wide access, though, you
have to have the boring, elemnetary and sometimes just
downright bad.

One last thing - the biggest attack on educational
figures comes from Franny, and it's important to
recognise that she does not necessarily represent the
whole of Salinger's view on the matter. For all I love
the spiritual element of F&Z, in many ways Franny's
breakdown is quintessentially that of a bright college
girl who's found that university is not the elevated,
unworldy place she'd hoped.

God, it's good to be back :-)

Love, Lucy-Ruth

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Tue Aug 27 16:52:49 2002

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun Aug 10 2003 - 20:48:48 EDT