chapters 15-28

THE APPEAL TO IMAGINATION 674

Copyright © 2011 by William Allan Kritsonis/All Rights Re-served

CHAPTER 15Literature

15.0 Literature

1) nondiscursive 9) higher criticism2) expressive 10) external and internal anal-ysis3) contemplation 11) biography4) imagination 12) psychology of literary com-position5) fictional 13) social, economic, and 6) ideal abstractions political situations7) individual work14) history of ideas8) textual criticism 15) reference to other arts

15.1 The central fact is that the objects of knowledge, in the art of literature, are particular verbal pat-terns designed to serve specific literary pur-poses:

1) sound2) euphony3) rhythm

15.2 Some Types of Figurative Usage

1) symbols 7) poetry2) metaphor 8) composition of the work3) analogy • plot4) myth • characterization5) fiction • setting6) drama

675 SELECTED THOUGHTS AND INSIGHTS

CHAPTER 16Personal Knowledge

16.0 Synnoetic meanings requires engagement.

16.1 Synnoetic meanings relate subjects to subjects. Objectivity is eliminated and is replaced by sub-jectivity, or better, intersubjectivity.

16.2 Intersubjectivity gives personal insight.

16.3 Personal knowledge is always on a one-to-one ba-sis.

16.4 Personal knowledge is existential and concrete.

16.5 Personal knowledge depends upon the nature of the common life.

16.6 The subjectivity inherent in personal knowledge inhibits the formation of groups.

16.7 Relations Are of Two Kinds “I-Thou” and “I-It”

“I-Thou” is a connected person with subjectivity. “I-It” is a setting apart of the individual treating them as objects.

16.8 In the “I-Thou” relation the attitude of manipula-tion is absent.

16.9 In the “I-Thou” relations with others are not treated as objects.

16.10In the “I-Thou” others are set free to be them-selves, not to be what I will them to be.

16.11One can regard the objects of nature as objects to be used and consumed (the I-It relation), or as being in themselves, to be respected and loved (the I-Thou relation).

16.12Meanings in the synnoetic realm are subjective, concrete, and existential.


16.13Meanings in the synnoetic realm are subjective, concrete, and existential.


CHAPTER 17Moral Knowledge

17.0 The essence of ethical meanings, or of moral knowledge, is right deliberate action, that is, what a person ought voluntarily to do.

17.1 The realm of ethics is right action. The central concept in this domain obligation or what ought to be done. The “ought” here is not individual but a universal principle of right.

17.2 Five Main Areas of Moral Concern

1) human rights2) sex and family relations3) relationships among and within class, ethnic,

racial, religious, and vocational groups4) economic life and political life5) distribute justice

17.3 Ordinary people are the guardians and practition-ers of morality.

17.4 Three Types of Ethical Theory

1) subjective2) formalist3) teleological

17.5 There appears to be no sure means of demon-strating what the idea life really is, so that every-one will agree. There continues to be differences in conceptions of the good, just as there are dif-ferences in conceptions of the right.

17.6 Appeal to essential human nature as the ultimate criterion of the good.

17.7 The good life consists in the realization of mean-ing in all the realms of meaning.


CHAPTER 18History

18.0 The subject matter of history is what happened in the past or human events of the past.

18.1 The unit of historical inquiry, in which the full sig-nificance of time is revealed, is the event, hap-pening, or episode.

18.2 The reconstruction of the past requires a consid-erable fund of knowledge.

18.3 Reenactment of the past and personal engage-ment is required to understand history.

18.4 History is the study of what human beings have deliberately done in the past.


CHAPTER 18History

19.0 The content of religious meanings may be any-thing at all provided it is regarded from an ulti-mate perspective.

19.1The methods of gaining religious understanding are many and varied:

1) prayer2) meditation3) active commitment4) ritual practices

19.2 In the religious sphere the basis of understanding is said to be faith.

19.3Faith is the illumination that comes in going to the limits.

19.4The supernatural is what is beyond the limits of the finite or natural.

19.5Silence is a significant aspect of religious expres-sion. Silence is a mode of expression that symbolizes the boundary situation from which faith springs.

19.6The person of faith believes God is the Source of all beauty.

19.7Religious realms incorporate all the realms of meaning.


CHAPTER 20Philosophy

20.0 The distinctive feature of philosophy is the inter-pretation of meanings.

20.1Philosophy draws upon knowledge from all other fields.

1) raising questions2) proposing answers3) developing implications

20.2 The method of philosophy is dialectic.

20.3 The medium of philosophical inquiry is discursive language.

20.4 The concepts in philosophical discourse are of high order abstraction.

20.5 The Interpretative Activity of the Philosopher

1) analysis2) evaluative3) synthesis

20.6 Philosophers seek to construct a synoptic view of the entire range of human experiences.

20.7 The main divisions of philosophic inquiry provide a summary review of the fundamental patterns of meaning.

20.8 Philosophy is devoted to the interpretation of the fundamental patterns in the realms of meaning.


CHAPTER 21The Scope of the Curriculum

21.0What does a person need to know? What is the ap-propriate scope of study that ought to be pro-vided?

21.1 The course of study should maximize meanings.

21.2 What shall be taught in order to maximize mean-ings?

1) fulfillment of mastery2) fulfillment consists in belonging to a commu-

nity3) fulfillment consists in many-sidedness4) fulfillment consists in the integrity of the per-

son5) fulfillment consists in gaining a certain qual-

ity of knowledge

21.3 The foundation for all civilized existence is hu-man nature.

21.4 The curriculum should provide for learning in all six realms of meaning.

21.5 Six realms of meaning are required if a person is to achieve the highest excellence.

21.6 The importance of specialized education lies in fulfilling meaning in mastery and belonging.

21.7 Specialized study is requisite for the common good in a complex civilization.

21.8 The judgment as to whether a study is general or special does not apply to content as such, but to the relation between content and purpose for the given person and situation.

21.9 Any item of knowledge that is an essential ingre-dient in the humanizing of one person may be used by another for special purposes.


21.10The term “fundamental” refers to fields that are concerned with the deliberate and direct pursuit of one of the six possible kinds of realms of meaning.


21.11Derivative or applied studies grow out of practi-cal considerations and workers in them seek so-lutions to problems without regard to purity of logical type.

21.12General Education or Specialized Education de-pends on the person and the situation.

21.13This book is concerned with the curriculum for general education and with the fundamental dis-ciplines.

21.14Effective curricula needs to be designed to take into account each person’s aptitudes and enthu-siasms.

21.15Consequences for general education are not the same as for specialized education.

21.16A person can be as advanced in general studies as in specialized ones.

21.17All six fundamental realms of meaning provide a program for the curriculum of general education in schools.

21.18No one curriculum is the best for all people and for every culture and situation.


CHAPTER 22The Logic of Sequence in Studies

22.0There is no law of sequence that prescribes ex-actly the succession of learning events.

22.1 Three Levels of Logical Studies in the Curriculum of General Education

1) logical relations among the six realms of meaning

2) relations of logic between disciplines within a given realm

3) logic of sequence within a particular disci-pline

22.2 Introducing the Realms

1) The empirical and esthetic realms may be in-troduced as soon as language becomes avail-able.

2) Personal knowledge and ethics are indepen-dent of empirical and esthetic meanings and therefore can be introduced as soon as com-municative means have begun to develop. As between person relations and ethics, neither has logical priority, the two being in recipro-cal relation.

3) History requires a knowledge of symbols, em-pirical data, dramatic methods, decision mak-ing, and moral judgments, to be welded to-gether into a reenactment of the past.

4) Religion depends upon experience of lan-guage, truth, beauty, being, and goodness, as elements in a visionary of ultimacy.

5) Philosophy requires a comprehensive world of meanings to analyze, evaluate, and synthe-size.

22.3 Logical Order of Realms of Meaning


First is symbolics, then empirics and esthetics (no preference as to precedence), next personal knowledge and ethics (these are reciprocally re-lated but distinctive, are dependent for their de-velopment upon empirical knowledge, and to some extent, esthetic understanding), and finally synoptics.

22.4 Logical Order (Short Version)

First is symbolics, then empirics and esthet-ics, next personal knowledge and ethics, and fi-nally synoptics.

22.5 Since there is no limit to what can be learned in any realm, it is impossible to complete one kind of study before starting the next.

22.6 All that logic requires is that enough learning take place in one subject to enable work to pro-ceed in other subjects that are logically depen-dent on it.

22.7 The ideal curriculum is one in which the maxi-mum coherence is achieved and segmentation is minimized.

22.8 The optimum curriculum for general education consists in all six realms of meaning.

22.9 The Problem of Deciding Sequence

1) There is no single logical pattern that must be of inquiry used for any given field.

2) Logical structure only provides a set of rela-tionships among the various components of a discipline. It does not in itself dictate order in time.

3) A distinction should be made between the two types of logical patterns. One type is an order to discovery, the other an order of analysis.

22.10The best routes are those that lead directly to the goals of the discipline.


22.11Fields of study easily become standardized and fall behind significant developments in knowl-edge and methods.

22.12Every discipline has distinctive patterns of mean-ing that must be respected in constructing an ef-fective order of instruction.


CHAPTER 23Developmental Factors in the

Sequence of Studies

23.0 Man is the learner par excellence.

23.1 The Appropriateness of Developmental Psychol-ogy

1) maturation2) readiness3) made ready4) economy of learning5) motivation6) continuity

23.2 The most fundamental experiences are those of personal relations.

23.3 Eight Stages in the Personal Career

1) trust2) autonomy3) initiative4) industry5) identity6) intimacy7) generativity8) integrity

23.4 The Sequence of Learning Experiences

1) appropriate lessons in the realm of personal relations vary according to the stage in life

2) each stage in personal growth presupposes the successful completion of the earlier stages

3) stages of life are not separate and indepen-dent ways of functioning.


23.5 The principle of unity and interrelations of mean-ing requires study in all the six realms of mean-ing.

23.6 Personal knowledge is of great important to the teacher and the student.

23.7 Intelligent and sensitive concern for people is es-sential in providing a good education.

23.8 Findings in developmental psychology indicate fields of study that help learners of various levels of maturity.

23.9 Psychologically justifiable sequence patterns have been determined for the ordering of in-struction.

23.10Logical and developmental factors are relevant to designs about the sequencing of studies.

23.11This developmental analysis in some measure confirms the earlier conclusions as to the relative priority of the realms of meaning based on logical consideration Developmentally, language clearly comes first (Symbolics) and integrative studies last (Synoptics). Moral meanings (Ethics) ap-pear relatively late, after a firm sense of oneself and of one’s relationships with others has been established (Synnoetics). As between science and art, the priority developmentally seams to rest with art (Esthetics), this being the more immedi-ate and intuitive ground from which the ratio-nalistic and generalizing scientific meanings (Em-pirics) subsequently develop.


CHAPTER 24The Problem of Selection in the Cur-

riculum

24.0The problem is choosing what to teach.

24.1 Earlier conditions of limited knowledge have been replaced by an avalanche of new knowl-edge.

24.2 Knowledge is increasing at an accelerated rate.

24.3 Cultural abundance is accentuated by a number of factors:

1) technical2) rapid increase in the number of people en-

gaged in the creation of new knowledge

24.4 Machines now directly contribute to the work of investigation.

24.5 There is an “explosion of knowledge.”

24.6 A growing need for better understanding is made possible by the realms of meaning.

24.7 The learning abilities of human beings has re-mained substantially the same.

24.8 Five Contributions to Help the Educational Prob-lem

1) increasing specialization2) improving administrative and organizational

procedures3) use for educational purposes the very tech-

nology from which the crisis stems4) use principles of psychology for learning5) is the judicious selection of materials for the

curriculum.


The goal is to find a solution to the problem posed by quantity by means of a principle of quality in curricular materials.

24.9 Humankind’s search for meaning leads to fulfill-ment in life as a person.


CHAPTER 25The Use of the Disciplines

25.0 The educator must select qualitatively the most significant materials from the totality of what is known.

25.1 Interdependence of specialists is the basis for the advancement of all knowledge and skill.

25.2 Two Kinds of Specialists

1) The first comprises persons of skill who are able to perform specialized functions with great efficiency and precision, and who do so by habit. They do not work by reflection and deliberation, but automatically, according to predetermined patterns of their skill spe-cialty.

2) The second comprises persons whose perfor-mance is also skilled but who act with com-prehension of the meaning of their actions. They function in a reflective manner, con-scious of their behavior and able to give good reasons for what they do.

25.3 An organized field of inquiry, pursued by a partic-ular group of men of knowledge, may be called a scholarly discipline.

25.4 The men of knowledge within the disciplines comprise public communities of scholars.

25.5 Everyone has opinions. Opinions are ordinarily not subjected to any critical examination and are accepted with scant justification, if any.

25.6 On the other hand, knowledge is an outcome of disciplined inquiry. Knowledge is tested by crite-ria of justification developed by organized com-munities of scholars.


25.7 The educator’s function is to direct the student towa4d authoritative knowledge.

25.8 All material should come from the disciplines.

25.9 The principle of disciplined knowledge excludes commonsense approaches to learning.

25.10The principle of disciplined understanding is the foundation for general education—the proper content of general education is authentic disci-plined knowledge.

25.11The teacher is a humanizer of knowledge.

25.12What seems to be obvious often turns out to be wrong on careful examination.

25.13Disciplined knowledge differs in quality from undisciplined opinion.

25.14A discipline is a field of inquiry wherein learning has been achieved in a productive way.

25.15Every discipline is a pattern of investigation for the growth of understanding.

25.16Understanding the disciplines is essential to good teaching.

25.17Many clues to effective teaching and learning are found within the disciplines themselves.

25.18A major purpose of this book is to mark out a wide range of disciplines.

25.19It is possible to use the knowledge from the disci-plines in connection with studies that cut across several disciplines.

25.20Every discipline is to some degree integrative in nature.

25.21No one plan is best for every teacher and for all students in all situations.

25.22What ever is taught must be drawn from the scholarly disciplines.


CHAPTER 26Representative Ideas

26.0 Content should be chosen to exemplify the repre-sentative ideas of the disciplines.

26.1 Representative ideas have form, pattern, or structure.

26.2 Representative ideas help in economizing learn-ing effort.

26.3 Representative ideas are principles of growth and simplification.

26.4 The task of the specialist or expert is to work out patterns of representative ideas within the disci-plines.

26.5 Teaching first the representative ideas would be a mistake.

26.6 Content should be chosen to exemplify the repre-sentative ideas of the discipline—these ideas are highly abstract.

26.7 Representative ideas guide the selection of learn-able content so that it will exemplify the charac-teristic features of the discipline.

26.8 At every stage of instruction the representative ideas should govern what is taught.

26.9 The aim of teaching is comprehensive under-standing.

26.10A student taught by the use of representative ideas understands meaningfully.

26.11Representative materials increase efficiency in learning and knowledge of representative ideas of the discipline.


CHAPTER 27Methods of Inquiry

27.0 The right of a scholar to speak as an authority rests on his acceptance of the canons of inquiry by which knowledge is created and validated in it.

27.1 Materials should be selected so as to exemplify the methods of inquiry in the disciplines.

27.2 The Importance of Understanding of Methods

1) Understanding of methods overcomes cyni-cism because it provides clear means for the acquisition of understanding.

2) Methods are unifying elements in a discipline, binding them together.

3) Understanding methods helps solve the prob-lem of surged in knowledge.

4) The study of methods in the disciplines is es-pecially helpful in respect to transience.

27.3 Methods generally change much more slowly than do the results of applying them.

27.4 Methods of a discipline are generally more stable than the results of inquiry.

27.5 Educators should not follow the latest fads or judge the value of knowledge by its recency. There is wisdom in allowing time to sift the wor-thy from the unworthy.

27.6 Methods are ways of learning.

27.7 Methods of inquiry by experts in a discipline pro-vide a pattern to be imitated by the teacher and student in general education at all levels.

27.8 Methods useful for teaching are not likely to be the same as used in discovery.


27.9 Methods of inquiry are relevant to the methods of teaching that discipline.

27.10Good teaching lies in guided discovery.

27.11In every discipline there are both ways of acquir-ing new knowledge and ways of validating knowl-edge.

27.12No single answer can be given to the question of how we think.

27.13There are many ways of teaching and learning.

27.14Teaching materials differ within each realm of meaning according to the discipline.

27.15Good teaching requires that some convincing pattern be used to coordinate the materials taught.

27.16The method chosen depends upon the intention of the teacher.

27.17The realms of meaning and the disciplines repre-sent ways of productive understanding and modes of organizing the materials for instruction.


CHAPTER 28The Appeal to Imagination

28.0 Materials for instruction should always be se-lected that appeal to the imagination of the stu-dents.

28.1 If a student has no interest in the curriculum he will not want to learn.

28.2 The highest powers of a man provide the key to understanding the lower levels of motivation.

28.3 Distinctive human qualities of mind and spirit are the clue to human motivation.

28.4 Imagination belongs to the active inner life of a person.

28.5 Imagination has remarkable power in fulfilling a person’s existence.

28.6 The fundamental goal of human existence is the fulfillment of meaning.

28.7 All human beings are aiming at the higher things of life, and ultimately at realization of the highest meanings.

28.8 Students learn best what they most profoundly want to know—their learning efficiency is in di-rect relation to their motivation.

28.9 Traditional academic curriculum is deficient in meaning. Functional curriculum is deficient that emphasizes the practical concerns of the learner. We must have an awakening of the inner life of the learner through the nurture of imagination.

28.10The appeal to the imagination calls for the selec-tion of materials that are drawn from the extraor-dinary rather than the experience of everyday life.


28.11Material should be selected for its power of stim-ulating imagination.

28.12The cultivation of the life of imagination is the ul-timate aim of general education.

28.13Success in solving the problems of life is best achieved by those whose imaginations are kin-dled.

28.14Imaginative teaching is suitable for everyone.

chapters 15-28

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