Re: General Observation

["joseph p. bottini" <jpbottini@adelphia.net>]

Scott/Jim and all:

I enjoy reading all the "stuff" on this list, even Art's opinions.
Disagreement can illuminate or clarify.

And, in his convoluted manner Art hits the nail on the head sometimes. 

Joe Bo
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Scott Hays
Date: 06/07/06 10:22:53
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: [arn-l] General Observation
 
On Jun 7, 2006, at 3:20 AM, "Horn, James" <jhorn@monmouth.edu> wrote:
 
> I agree.  Keeping Burke around eliminates the need for any nuanced
> discussion of policy, assessment, curriculum or anything else.  He
> is a dependable and easy foil, pinata, and shameless idiot fool all
> rolled into one.  For those who engage him, it offers a semblance
> of moving a point forward, when, in fact, any possible movement has
> been blocked by an unremitting refusal to even see the beginning
> point. You are right, Scott--this would be a very different list if
> he were booted, a fate he has earned many times over.
 
Jim ... you misunderstood.  I do not advocate ... nor was I asking
that ... Art be "booted" from this list (or, as he so eloquently put
it, "silenced").  I actually was not suggesting a course of action,
at all, which is why the subject line identified my comments as a
"general observation".  I am perturbed by the politicization of
everything and, in the case of this list, specifically of education.
I am bothered that voices of "experts" ... whose expertise often is
in anything but education ... carry more weight than do those of
practitioners; and because no one listens anymore, the voices of
reason and experience are lost.  I concluded my "observations" by
stating we cannot ignore the criticisms directed at us ... I wish
they would be elevated to something beyond selective daggers aimed at
short passages taken from a broader context (my pet peeve with Art is
that he ignores the whole fabric of an argument and focuses on a
single inconsistency that he thinks he has seized) ... and would add
now that maybe responses to such criticisms can help us refine our
argument.  I don't know ... I'm currently reading about Lincoln and
maybe just in a funk about polar extremes of leadership between what
we have had and what we now have.
 
All men having power ought to be mistrusted
-- James Madison
 
 
 
 
.