tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628195123594256429.post2600744600565215054..comments2012-04-09T07:55:53.819-05:00Comments on Amy's Rhetoric Blog: Don't Stifle the Young FolksAmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01083810327473667268noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628195123594256429.post-76295830444450402042007-11-08T12:18:00.000-06:002007-11-08T12:18:00.000-06:00I agree that Vico and Quintilian had a good view o...I agree that Vico and Quintilian had a good view of education. It allowed for more creative freedoms by the student, which I believe is just as important as learning facts.Andrea512https://www.blogger.com/profile/11834307620973839208noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5628195123594256429.post-65909500395467126622007-11-06T11:57:00.000-06:002007-11-06T11:57:00.000-06:00Vico and Quintilian were way ahead of their time i...Vico and Quintilian were way ahead of their time in this aspect of their educational philosophy. Amy, I think you articulated their sentiment well in the phrase about not trying to build each student up from scratch. Now, this is going to sound really cynical, and I'm not necessarily endorsing the idea, but just raising a possible objection to Vico and Quintilian's anti-Cartesianism: what if you live in a society in which it is not so much education but rather a popular culture which bombards children with sensory stimulation from a very early age that is responsible for quashing their creativity (I think of my nephew and niece's faces when they watch cartoons: it seems like the MORE wacky, animated, and creative and clever the cartoon, the LESS stimulated they themselves are--why bother to be creative when popular culture performs all the creativity for you and sells it to you as a conveniently packaged commodity). I wonder if there's a case to be made that in such a situation, Cartesianism might be precisely what is needed to gain back some level of intellectual activity. The point is that maybe it's inaccurate to simply take for granted that creativity and the desire to learn by doing are inherent in children at any time in history in any society and that scientific education always runs counter to that.Landishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07260542994792389461noreply@blogger.com