Lessons Learned
Where Should We Move the Pendulum? : Necrophilia and Biophilia in the Last Sixty Years of Chilean Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrea Campana
This year – 2023 – marks the 50th anniversary of the 1973 coup d'état in Chile. This research paper examines the last sixty years of education in Chile from a Frommian perspective by proposing that the year 1973 emerges as a turning point in the educational history of our country wherefrom massification, mechanization, and standardization have become constitutive components of the educational system. By surveying the major milestones in the Chilean educational arena before and after the coup d’etat, this paper documents the progressively necrophilic movement in education, that was, in turn, a response to the neoliberal logic adopted by the dictatorship of the time. The study discusses the preponderance of epistemological views and policies aligned with the intricate systems of competition and measurement (the “supply” and “demand” of economics) that predominate in one way or another to this day and the need to achieve a balance between the biophilic and necrophilic orientations that will allow the opening of epistemological and ontological paths in education, which highlight the importance of timing, rhythm, and emotion.
“The Moral of the Story”: A Case Study in the Literary Humanities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marie Therese C Sulit
In the spring of 2023, a colleague and I co-taught, “The Moral of the Story” (ENG/PHL 2265), for the first time, at Mount Saint Mary College, a Dominican institution located in the Hudson Valley of New York. Dr. Charles Zola, with his specialization in Philosophy, and I, in English, created this Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar with the specific goal of bridging ancient narratives of the traditional Western tradition, like _The Odyssey_ and _Gulliver’s Travels_, with contemporary and global ones, like Ruta Sepetys’ _Salt to the Sea_ and Kwame Alexander’s _Light for the World to See: A Thousand Words on Race and Hope_. Thematically, what was illuminated by bridging the old with the new? Pedagogically, what was affirmed by bridging these two disciplines in a small liberal arts college catering to students in professional programs? Professionally, what was accomplished in its structure wherein every class was facilitated by two instructors from their disciplinary perspectives? What were its limitations and challenges in its first iteration? What can its next iteration account for and accomplish? This paper frames its discussion by situating “The Moral of the Story” within the current conflicting zeitgeists across the U.S., e.g., white supremacy and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, as we swiftly approach the national election of 2024. This study not only hopes to affirm the role of this literary humanities course, cum critical cultural studies, in one liberal arts college and its replicability across institutions, but also hopes to reflect the importance of a humanities education.
The Task of the Translator in the Collapse of Roman Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ben Garceau
During the 6th Century, Italy experienced a series of shocks that tipped Roman society into collapse. In this study, I focus on the efforts of the senatorial class to maintain the Classical system of education through this chaotic time period, efforts that were superseded by a variety of monastic orders. It may come as some surprise that a central issue in the drive to preserve Roman education was the translation of Greek texts into Latin, and that the heroes of the day were the fidi interpretes working in the circle of the Symmachi, such as Macrobius and Boethius. Intriguingly, these translators continued to use the “word-for-word” and “sense-for-sense” binary familiar to us today, but they interpreted what we might understand in terms of equivalence in a radically different way. As Italy plunged ever deeper into war, famine, and plague, the translator’s work was understood to change, moving from a more secular transfer of knowledge between idioms toward a revelation of divine truth. Through comparison with the works of St. Augustine and Cassiodorus, and with nods to Walter Benjamin’s idea of “pure language” [die reine Sprache] and Jacques Derrida’s archival apocalypticism, I track how the exigencies of post-Roman Italy transformed the task of the translator at the dawn of the early Middle Ages in Europe. The lessons of the translators who lived and died during this fractious era have much to say to a modern world that seems to threaten its own end times.
