As Jamie MacKinnon wrote about cognition, I immediately thought of
Benjamin Bloom's old taxonomy. Jamie wrote:
> I believe that studies of cognition show us that most people in most
> situations develop expertise not primarily (or superordinately) by learning
> how, by learning process, by learning metastrategy, but by mastering a
> huge domain of content.
>
Bloom, of course would consider these "metastrategies" as part of the
higher level, open cognitive objectives, but as I hear Jamie, I wonder
can we reach those higher levels without first wallowing in the world of
knowledge of specifics? In short, and somewhat surprisingly, I find
myself agreeing that teaching the young something of what it means to be
here, to be Canadian, is important. If that involves memorizing
Flanders Fields or even (gulp) Shakespeare, maybe it also involves
memorizing Susan Musgrave (whose best poetic line is "Hot damn and we
hoof it") or Maxine Tynes (my favourite neglected Nova Scotian poet).
Having the ability to strategize, to evaluate, to synthesize without
having the facts at one's fingertips is like having a Pentium computer
with a gazillion Meg harddrive but no programs or operating system.
As for Jamie's subsequent question:
> what somethings do we want students / citizens to know? Might some
> poetry be one of those somethings?
I want them to know everything. Poetry and all.
Rob Irish
P.S. For the Toronto residents in the group, check out the U.C. Drama
Program's production of Shakespeare's Henry V; it is grappling with
precisely these issues.
Take your Valentine.
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Dr. Robert Irish
Coordinator of Language Across the Curriculum
Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering
University of Toronto
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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