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"So much teaching happens without us going into a classroom, and without us realizing we?re being taught."

Said Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, quoted in "Mellon Foundation to Spend $250 Million to Reimagine Monuments/The initiative, the largest in the organization?s history, will support the creation of new monuments, as well as the relocation or rethinking of existing ones" (NYT). Full quote:

?The beauty of monuments as a rubric is, it?s really a way of asking, ?How do we say who we are? How do we teach our history in public places?? So much teaching happens without us going into a classroom, and without us realizing we?re being taught. We want to ask how we can help think about how to give form to the beautiful and extraordinary and powerful multiplicity of American stories.... The beauty of the deep study of history is when you realize there?s not just one story, and there?s not just two stories. You realize the power of this country is our multiplicity.?

The quote ? in the post title ? jumped out at me because I'd just blogged about President Trump's declaration from the hospital:

"It's been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about covid. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn't the let's-read-the-book school. And I get it. And I understand it. And it's a very interesting thing."

School beyond school. Of course, the education we receive outside of the classroom is immense. I presume it's far more than what we get inside school, even if we count the part of school that is our homework ? the "let's read the book" part as opposed to just the "classroom." And, obviously, with covid, the line "So much teaching happens without us going into a classroom" is inapt, because the foundation president did not mean to exclude the teaching that happens with the child at home and the teacher on the computer screen.

Is respect for formal schooling on the decline? Are these 2 statements evidence of that? If they are, it's only implied. What they most noticeably do is give respect to other kinds of learning, and if recognition of learning is bestowed as a form of respect, that suggests all forms of learning are respected.

Says the retired law professor.

Full post as published by Althouse on October 05, 2020 (boomark / email).