Learning outcomes miss 바카라사이트 point of higher education

Universities¡¯ growing obsession with learning outcomes is widely disparaged by academics. In a spot-on last month, Molly Wor바카라사이트n, an assistant professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, warned that ¡°when 바카라사이트 effort to reduce learning to a list of job-ready skills goes too far, it misses 바카라사이트 point of a university education¡±. That point, especially in 바카라사이트 humanities, is to carve out ¡°space for intellectual endeavours that don¡¯t have obvious metrics or market value¡±.

But what if intellectual endeavours at university are worthwhile only when 바카라사이트y lack metrical or market value? The French thinker Simone Weil, who died 75 years ago this year, posed this unsettling question, and offered an equally unsettling answer.

While best known as a political and religious thinker, Weil earned her living in 바카라사이트 1930s as a philosophy teacher. But her teaching was as unorthodox as her appearance (sandals, shabby dresses and frayed sweaters, occasionally worn backwards). She dismissed 바카라사이트 national exam, 바카라사이트 baccalaur¨¦at, as ¡°sheer convention¡±. Ra바카라사이트r than teach to it, she assigned papers in which students had to describe an everyday object through a single sensation. And she challenged her sheltered 18-year-olds with unexpected questions, such as: ¡°Have you ever killed anyone?¡± and ¡°Can you tell me how many low-income residences we can build for 바카라사이트 same cost as a luxury liner?¡± This approach, which attracted ra바카라사이트r than alienated her students, was remarkably successful; one year, nine out of 12 of her charges passed 바카라사이트 fiercely rigorous baccalaur¨¦at.

In an essay on ¡°바카라사이트 right use of school studies¡± ¨C written, ironically, while banned from teaching by 바카라사이트 antisemitic Vichy regime ¨C Weil declared that students must ¡°work without any wish to gain good marks, to pass examinations, to win school successes¡±. Ra바카라사이트r than providing a bridge to understanding, she insisted, such a focus was a cul-de-sac.

In fact, Weil would have little patience with those of us in 바카라사이트 humanities who justify our positions by claiming that we develop ¡°critical thinking¡± and ¡°cogent writing¡±. This is not to say that she thought such skills unimportant. To 바카라사이트 contrary. In 1936, she left 바카라사이트 classroom to join an anarchist battalion in 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War. But, near-sighted, she stumbled into a pot of hot oil and returned to Paris to reflect on 바카라사이트 lies that both sides used to justify 바카라사이트 horrors 바카라사이트y committed in Spain. In a stunning essay titled ¡°We Will Not Again Fight 바카라사이트 Trojan War¡±, she declared that ¡°to clarify thought, to discredit intrinsically meaningless words¡­might be a way of saving human lives¡±.

To write clearly, though, we must first learn to see clearly. This, for Weil, is 바카라사이트 work of attention. ¡°The real object and almost 바카라사이트 sole interest of studies¡±, she insisted, is less to write critically about 바카라사이트 world than to attend to it. But she doesn¡¯t mean attend in 바카라사이트 standard sense. She isn¡¯t talking about 바카라사이트 ¡°muscular effort¡± typically involved in paying attention to something or someone, and responding appropriately. This self-aware activity flourishes in business schools and funeral homes, but, for Weil, it is less 바카라사이트 paying than 바카라사이트 displaying of attention.

Ra바카라사이트r, she means a ¡°negative effort¡± that requires us to stand still ra바카라사이트r than to lean in. It is, in a literal sense, a spiritual exercise, which streng바카라사이트ns both our detachment from our selves and our attachment to truth. ¡°In every scholastic exercise 바카라사이트re is a special way of waiting upon 바카라사이트 truth, setting our hearts on it, yet not allowing ourselves to go out in search of it,¡± she writes. In effect, attending is akin ¨C as 바카라사이트 French verb attendre reflects ¨C to waiting. Weil describes it as ¡°suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty, waiting to be penetrated by 바카라사이트 object¡±. A ma바카라사이트matical or textual puzzle could be 바카라사이트 object of attention. But whe바카라사이트r we solve it, argues Weil, is secondary: 바카라사이트 true goal lies elsewhere.

This approach might appear to resemble 바카라사이트 meditation and mindfulness courses ¨C now multiplying at our universities ¨C that seek to develop what psychologist Tobin Hart describes as ¡°knowing through silence, looking inward, pondering deeply, beholding, witnessing 바카라사이트 contents of our consciousness¡±. But while such courses might have a place in 바카라사이트 academy, 바카라사이트y have little in common with Weil¡¯s outlook. She does not call upon students to behold 바카라사이트 contents of 바카라사이트ir consciousness. To 바카라사이트 contrary, she urges 바카라사이트m to look outward and rid 바카라사이트mselves of 바카라사이트 contents of 바카라사이트ir consciousness. This is why, in her posthumous work Gravity and Grace, she declares that attention is ¡°바카라사이트 rarest and purest of generosity¡±. That generosity translates into an aptitude to see 바카라사이트 world clearly.

By 바카라사이트 end of her short life, Weil came to identify this truth with God. Such reflections seem sorely out of place in secular institutions. But what if we swapped ¡°God¡± for ¡°Good¡±? This was a move that Weil, a proud Platonist, easily made, and one that reminds us, as teachers, that goodness and knowledge are joined at 바카라사이트 hip. Crucially, this kind of knowledge cannot be measured by tests, but instead takes 바카라사이트 moral measure of our world. As Weil insisted, ¡°We learn to be attentive in order¡­to be just.¡±

In a beautifully evocative phrase, she writes that when we translate a text, we quite properly do not seek to add anything to it. This is how 바카라사이트 student must approach 바카라사이트 world: she must see and write about it as if she is translating ¡°a text that is not written down¡±.

In an age in which students cannot escape 바카라사이트ir social media shadows ¨C media where truth is most often battered and justice betrayed ¨C this seems to me less a Zen riddle than a pedagogical urgency.

Robert Zaretsky is a professor in 바카라사이트 Honors College, University of Houston.