unlearning to learn


This is actually the first in a multi part series of posts on education and learning and stuff like that. Next up will be “college isn’t for everybody” but I am gonna start with “unlearning.”

So. In the May 6th Wall Street Journal there was a short article on the American University in Cairo (“A Campus where Unlearning is First”). I was interested in the article for two reasons.

First. A good friend of mine is an associate dean of something smart there. Economics I think. Good guy to know when discussing the euro. Helpful guy to know if you are going to write about a university you have never heard of before.

Second. The article points out something which I have kind of believed for awhile – the education system is set up to encourage memorizing to achieve a result rather than thinking to understand. (wow. that was a big statement … but really why I am writing this post).

So. What is “unlearning.”

UNLEARNWell. Let’s assume (because it’s true) most learning is based on the concept of rote learning and typically creativity (in thinking) is often discouraged (because teachers are seeking to not confuse a portion but teach the whole). Think memorize and recite and not accumulate, assimilate and forge a thought. Therefore unlearning is breaking down the traditional way of thinking and teaching critical thinking methodology. American University calls it “a year of disorientation.” (what an awesome concept).

Ultimately I would imagine we are talking about the construct (or critical thinking associated with) of the study of philosophy. Or the study of thinking (I hate to call it critical thinking).

Not free thought but simple down and dirty tearing apart thought fabric to see how a thought is sewn or woven together.

I love the concept. Especially when taken out of a university curriculum and think about this idea with regard to teaching the next generation of students. I am not suggesting we shouldn’t teach kids facts and basic foundational learning elements but rather that maybe the pendulum has swing a little too far to scores and grades and such (unintended repercussions of programs like No Child Left behind) and maybe we need to let things swing back a little toward ‘how to think.’ (and, no, I don’t think having computers and video games stop us from teaching our kids this so don’t even come back to me with that crap).

So. Wouldn’t a generation of kids be better off if they had a dose of this:

–          Stanley Fish, a literary theorist, has suggested that the entire history of Western thought could be written as a history of the debate between Socrates and the sophists, namely that between philosophy and rhetoric.

–          The Oracle at Delphi saw the true nature of Socrates, telling him that he was the wisest man in Athens not because he knew it all but because he was the only one who knew that he did not know.

I bolded (and italicized that thought because it is HUGE)

Yup. We are certainly talking about Socratic (or Plato if you want his student) thinking. When I started thinking this way it reminded me of an awesome article in a recent Economist “arguing to death: from Socrates, history’s quintessential nonconformist, lessons for America today.”). The basic point of the article is we have forgotten how to think (and ultimately then are incapable of having necessary productive debate/discussion) because we focus on siloed learning (if not memorized beliefs) and communicate in vindictive firebrand style. Socrates would have found these types of ‘debate’ pointless and unworthy (and would have walked out seeking a hemlock latte at the nearest Starbucks I would bet).

This lack of informed opinion and its frequent dissolution into contemptuous invective and insults finds its roots in our education (I believe). Discussion in the United States, both in academia and in politics, seems to have devolved into an unenlightened sliver opinion shouting match rather than an informed dialectic.

There does not seem to be a middle ground in the United States anymore.  There is rarely a meeting of the minds and no informed centrist position, in particular, in education (because that is what I am writing about but take it into a politics discussion and we enter a higher galaxy).

What I liked about American University in Cairo is even in our most elite pre college high schools Socrates would find a youth more interested in making a grade than ascertaining or divining the truth.

I fear we are in a sorry state right now in that education is ruled by greed or grade rather than by principle or thinking.

OK, here s the deal. The primary education system is in need of enormous investment. Kids have mastered the art of memorizing tons of stuff but when you ask a what if or pure analysis question, they fall down. As a friend pointed out “I got terrible teaching evaluations my first year until I kept pounding the point that the class is called Financial Analysis and not memorize a bunch of crap and spit it back out.”

A liberal arts education as the two year foundation does help the kids think about questions differently. Socrates discussions with Mena were the forerunners of what became Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and attempts to legislate morality and good corporate governance (just so everyone doesn’t think that there are practical applications to what may seem like a fairly esoteric discussion).

At American University it appears kids get an intensive two year professional training in business or engineering, but they’re learned, worldly people first and foremost.

And, look, it works. They got a degree from there they get good jobs –simple.

Queen Rania of Jordan is an alumnus (the First Lady earned her BS and MS there). Egypt’s President’s son and daughter-in-law are graduates as well (yes. I purposefully listed two prominent women).

Look. I don’t care if we teach our kids philosophy (one would think it would have been great for me if you know me but I sucked at that class in college myself) but I do believe some form of  dialectic (or maybe simple critical thinking) is important. And not just in college. I would dump it into pre college. Balance out the memorization somewhat. Ensure our kids at least have a fighting chance in a world is that is often messy and where those who can assimilate different factoids and think may help us get out of this seemingly current doom loop of vindictive debate which is just a version of “arguing ourselves to death.”

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Written by Bruce