Beowulf And Other Diversions
The first minute of Beowulf:
And some Johnny Cash:
Plato's Cave Allegory:
The dumbing down of our country continues: Link.
Finally, a 21st Century addition to The Sun Also Rises:
Really?
Have a good weekend, all.
Cheers.
R. Sherman
And some Johnny Cash:
Plato's Cave Allegory:
The dumbing down of our country continues: Link.
Finally, a 21st Century addition to The Sun Also Rises:
Really?
Have a good weekend, all.
Cheers.
R. Sherman
Labels: Current Events, Literature, Miscellaneous, Music
posted by R. Sherman at 12:23 AM
4 Comments:
It hard to strike a match that crosses all these. Which I suppose is how things should run given my name isn't Randall and I'm not sitting half way across the USA.
Oh Kay then. Beowulf would be seen here and in Scotland as world literature. But we've our own sagas, far older in fact that keeps us occupied. More in tune and time with Troy about 1700BC The Norse and the Icelandic would be next.
It's of course true that Oxbridge had a requirement to translate sections of the poem to matriculate. But that has since been removed. But this was wholly Chauvinist with a Jute Saxon and Angle spin being grafted to that of Norman savagery :-).
My problem with the High School Dip', here anyway. It's 50 years out of date. Designed to bring people to college level education. But is now used as a release date for the kids and the education authority. That it succeeds in providing anything other than employment for the fellow that cut down the tree is in itself a miracle. And from what I've heard, read and seen, your system is even more useless. So, as far as I'm concerned the more people pull the treads the better. Hopefully a better bag will be formed from the resulting collapse.
Good Lord! The man with the Tattoo on his Penis---Help Us and Save Us! What is the world coming to???
I guess that was your point! Well, you made it, my dear! (lol)
Vince, I consider Beowulf world literature, too, part of the canon of things people should be familiar with.
As for our education system, my rants about it could go on for days. As you probably know, people used to end their formal education at 8th grade and were better informed than most 12th grade graduates now. High school was rare; college rarer still. Over the years the value of those levels of education have become ever more diluted and standards ever lower, to the point where our community colleges and some state universities are offering remedial/developmental courses in reading, writing and math. I know of college courses on degree tracks which focus on writing coherent sentences, for heaven's sake!
Yet, at the same time, there are eighth graders who could adequately work at a Wal-mart (think Tesco) given the skill set required.
I tend to think the German 3 tiered approach is better if one is interested in a utilitarian approach to education: University tier; technical tier; trade tier. It's possible to move up, but it requires a lot of work. By the same token, you avoid the moral problem of spending resources on individuals who have little or no hope of succeeding.
Alas, our society won't buy into that concept, and so, we putter along reducing the inherent value of any certificate or diploma/degree, because we want everyone to feel good or because we'd rather pursue an egalitarian result than provide and equal opportunity for all to succeed or fail.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Randall, thanks for sharing all this. The Cash song in particular was very powerful, and I enjoyed the Beowulf piece. I found myself wondering, incidentally, given what we know of the history of the poem itself, if it was ever performed orally. (Here is a lengthy discussion of the debates over the poem's relation, if any, to an oral tradition.)
As you know, I'd very much like to see a beefing up of the requirements for graduating from high school so that it once again prepares graduates for most jobs that (employers now seem to think) now require a bachelor's degree. It seems to me that if diploma-holders who go on to college are found not to be academically prepared for that which their diploma implies they are ready, the more logical solution is not for colleges to offer quite so many remedial classes for incoming students.
I'm looking forward to your reply to my Occupy post, by the way.
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