To love thinking is to love Kenneth Burke in all his various approaches to the Word. Supposing that A is a lover of flowers, and that I present him with a flower…and supposing further, that instead of examining my flower, arranging it tentatively against the landscape, and putting it to his nose, A asks me [...]
Tag Archives: kenneth burke
This is a Test
1) “A road map that helps us easily find our way from one side of the continent to the other owes its great utility to its exceptional existential poverty.”* Please describe what you think is meant by “utility” and “existential poverty.” 2) Can you apply your elucidation to current social practices and systems of learning? [...]
Training in Belief and Reason
On the a.m. dog-walk I listened to a podcast regarding, primarily, the “will to believe.” (“Psychological Anthropology” on Entitled Opinions) The author/academic (Tanya Luhrmann) interviewed has written at least two titles on modes of belief, Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft, an investigation into modern practitioners of magic in London, and When God Talks Back, field [...]
Administrative Policies: The Art of Love and War
[L]et us review quickly the kind of advice formulated by Machiavelli as administrative policies for rulers who would widen their powers or keep themselves in power: Either treat well or crush; defend weak neighbors and weaken the strong; where you foresee trouble, provoke war; don’t make others powerful; be like the prince who appointed a [...]
Calculable Obligations: Motivations of Money and Technology
Debt, that is, as opposed to a promise, is a calculable obligation. I was reading a review of two books on the current state of global indebtedness in the London Review of Books (“Forgive Us Our Debts” by Benjamin Kunkel) when it seemed clear to me that this is the basic ground of all domination [...]
Soulless We Externalize
For Eric…seeking a French story. “But I admit that I am indulging in theoretical considerations of the short story, although happily I can disregard them when I begin to write. But I am not satisfied that the American form is the better. The American method at its best is to tell a story which prepares [...]
Shorter, On Tenure
A teacher in any institution ONLY needs tenure if he/she plans to teach an antagonistic stance to the institution. A teacher does not need to TEACH the national economic structure; does not need to teach the use of primary technologies used in that structure. These are de facto our “ground” of political, economic and social [...]
Tenure’s Just Another Word for Liberty, So Dump It!
Paul Thomas today at Schools Matter: K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry At The New Republic, “Making the Grade” poses this about the difference between college professors (notice that term “professor,” as in “one who professes”) and K-12 teachers: “The vast majority of states have long granted public school teachers tenure. The way it works is [...]
Off the Wall: Educating Tomorrow’s Paradigm Today
Today, while checking the jobs board at my local school district I noticed a new position (new to me). Here it is: Digital Learning Coach: Coach serves as part of multiple educational teams, providing job-imbedded and ongoing professional development for teachers, staff, and administration. Position plays a very strong role in the analysis and utilization [...]
Educating Business Ethics
The population of the US seems to be experiencing a kind of national awakening regarding the harsh and endemic inequalities of our “Us vs Them” economic reality. Though it seems possible that our bail-out and bubble-induced slogans of solidarity will fade into our historical moment to be studied by the future (should there be one [...]
Articles
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The Chaos of Monoculture
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The Custom House: Louis Agassiz with Christoph Irmscher
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The Errant Goes Audible: The Custom House on WFHB
