Chapter 9

Individualism–

What we should aim at producing is men who possess both culture and expert knowledge in some special direction.

I mean poets, when you sing the song of the pure self, you’re singing the song of Facebook, you’re singing the song of targeted advertising.

While I’d struggle to tell you how I learn best, there is one question that I’d always be able to answer enthusiastically: What would you like to learn next? Right now I’m learning JavaScript and have plans to give Spanish another go. I should probably pick up those guitar lessons again soon as well. Thankfully we live in a time when it’s trivially easy to gain access to resources and to learning activities. The problem is finding out the ones that work best for you. Perhaps that’s why we carry around in our pockets devices that can access pretty much the sum total of human knowledge yet use them to LOL at amusing pictures of cats. What are the barriers here? I’d suggest there are three main ones: 1 Curriculum - the series of activities that build towards a learning goal 2 Credentials - the ability to show what you know 3 Community - the cohort of peers you feel you are part of, along with access to ‘experts’

there is a powerful impact on growth and self awareness when students can see their own development in speaking, in writing, in thinking and problem solving.

Using explicit criteria, the student develops the ability to look at her own work and determine the strengths and weaknesses evident in a particular performance or across a set of performances. She begins to set goals to address the areas she needs to develop and to deepen her areas of strength.

That power is unleashed when teachers see the portfolio process as dependent upon the clarity of goals for student performance through their work in the liberal arts and professional education curriculum; when they attend to the quality of the assignments, projects and assessments that they provide for their students; and when they take the responsibility for teaching students the process of reflection and self assessment.

As an aside, do you believe in “self-sufficiency”?

But since all likeness and relationship is IJieasurable to an individual, necessarily all are more or less lovers of themselves

sensation is never simple. It is always doubled by the feeling of having a fe eling. It is self-refere ntial. This is not necessarily the same as "sc1f-reAexive.

"What connections can I make between what I'm learning in one class with what rm learning in another?" ""What questions do I have about my learning?"

making student development visible and accessible to the student, through video portfolios, written portfolios, and multi media collections of work

The challenge for all of us engaged in the design of portfolio assessment is to assist our students to learn how to make their products more "interwoven and complete," weighing "the stress of every chord" to assure that the portfolio becomes an expressio

the portfolio can be a structure to help an individual express meaning. But its quality depends up what the individual does with it.

The disaggregation of news in the Internet age has inverted this relationship, and made news outlets hypersensitive to the interests of their readers. This is a positive development. It’s good that the media covers stories that its constituents are interested in and want to read about. It’s good when news outlets are connected to the communities they serve.

Alcathoe

ALCI'THOE

Hence, a first analogy can be put forward: what others are to the ascetic in a community, the notebook is to the recluse. But, at the same time, a second analogy is posed, one that refers to the practice of ascesis as work not just on actions but, more precise]y, on thought: the constraint that the presence of others exerts in the domain of conduct, writing will exert in the domain of the inner impulses of the soul.

Beginning the issue with “are” or “is” often leads to a clearer and more concise expression of the issue than beginning it with “may,” “can,” “does,” or “should.” The latter beginnings may lead to vague or ambiguous versions of the issue. Examine the following alternative statements of the judicial issue from Aiken Industries, Inc. (TC, 1971), acq.: Issue 2 (Poor): Are the interest payments exempt from the withholding tax? Issue 2 (Poor): Should the taxpayer exempt the interest payments from withholding tax? In the first version of issue 2 above, to which interest payments and which withholding tax is the writer referring? The issue does not stand alone since it cannot be precisely understood apart from separately reading the brief�s facts. The extreme brevity leads to ambiguity. In the second version, the question can be interpreted as a moral or judgment issue rather than a legal one. Whether the taxpayer should do (or should not do) something may be a very different issue than the legal question of what the law requires. A legal brief, however, should focus on the latter. Rewriting issue 2 as follows leads to a clearer expression of the precise issue: Issue 2 (Better): Are interest payments exempt from the U.S. 30% withholding tax when paid to an entity established in a tax treaty country for no apparent purpose other than to escape taxation on the interest received?

Issues should be stated so that they “stand alone.” That is, issues should be completely understandable without reference to the facts or other sections of the brief or judicial decision. Use of the definite article “the” indicates that the issue does not stand alone when it alludes to prior information.

In fact, our work persuades us that any urban configuration that has not evolved — has not been computed step-by-step using adaptive adjustments — is probably dysfunctional and unsustainable

And when it is all over with the human intellect, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no additional mission which would lead it beyond human life.

The causes of our deliberately intending harmful and wicked acts contrary to law are (1) vice, (2) lack of self-control

Not all voluntary acts are deliberate, but all deliberate acts are conscious -- no one is ignorant of what he deliberately intends.)