Why? This is why.
Apr. 8th, 2005 08:47 pm"Teachers are fond of giving 'background material.' This is inevitable but it is dangerous because it diverts the student's attention away from the text and can easily suggest that the roots for understanding lie outside the text itself, and that the student has no access to them. This is to reinforce the all-too-prevalent notion that nothing can be understood in itself, but always requires some external factor--a deus ex machina--to make things intelligible to us. This is to deny the power of the intellect and to leave us all prey to simplistic authority and illogical superstition."
from the 40-page founding document of the Johnnie Summer program for teachers, down the road at Cambridge College.
from the 40-page founding document of the Johnnie Summer program for teachers, down the road at Cambridge College.