A <> A+2

I’m always thinking about novices. Virtually all of what is called by some progressive in LD—and note that the word progressive is taking on the cloud of connotations nowadays that the word liberal used to have in the mouths of Reagan conservatives—is antithetical to working with high school freshmen if for no other reason than that they’re not ready for the material. That is, even if so-called progressive—and I just can’t write the word progressive straight for fear that you might think that I mean that somehow this material is, in fact, progressive—LD is superior, or right, or true, or best, or however you want to portray it against traditional approaches, it is nonetheless none of those for 14-year-olds. The reason is simple. They’re not old enough. They haven’t been around to learn enough yet to synthesize this sort of material. I mean, you can’t read critiques of Kant until you’ve read Kant. You can’t understand the futility of post-historical narrative until you understand the gist of the historical narrative in the first place, and then have a sense of all the factors that mitigate against it in contemporary society. Bebop makes no sense without swing. And youth per se has nothing to do with achieving these understandings except insofar as the younger you are, the less time you’ve had to get your initial grounding. It’s not a question of maturity (or at least it doesn’t have to be a question of maturity): it’s not the quality of one’s time on earth but the quantity.

Last night we had a chez attended primarily by the Plebes, and I was struck by the difference between that session and the one the night before with the upperclassfolk. Primarily the ucf never shut their yaps, while the Plebes hardly ever open theirs. To a great extent this is a factor of their unfamiliarity with me (we haven’t spent that much time together yet), and they’re unsure of how much I really want to hear from them, versus how much I want to tell them what to think. But also they don’t have that much to say yet. I mean, if we’re sitting around discussing Enron, WalMart, Apple and Nike, in the space of about two minutes, what exactly do they know about the nature of these corporations, and the impacts these corporations have on the world. We did manage to determine that LPW owns no Nikes and that Richard’s size fourteens are awe-inspiring, however. One of the Plebes, having discovered (albeit not read) Rousseau, has already worked out an affirmative position based on some random quote from good old Jean-Jacques (which was pronounced anything but Jean-Jacques), eliciting from me a momentary blast on general will and some misgivings about the effect of civilization on the poor noble plebian savage, after which I suggested that all resolutional pegs cannot be hammered into the hole of social contraction.

As I said, they’re young…

Anyhow, going forward, I’m thinking that, for brainstorming purposes, it’s probably not a good idea to isolate young and old. Granted the old will do all the talking, but a good stew needs seasoning. And the young ‘uns will learn at the knees of the elders. I hope. In any case, young and old will now go forward and research Jan-Feb over the break. Again, I hope. May God have mercy on their heathen souls.