At a recent academic ceremony conferring degrees, Wilhelm Jordaan (whose
nephew is the current editor of ‘Die Burger’ newspaper, wondered how
contemporary students reflected on knowledge, given that today knowledge is
treated as a commodity. We are supposed to produce students for the
marketplace, and the knowledge we provide them with has to have use-value.
But if you try to speak of the formative value of such knowledge then
people seem to not want to know, even though so many are concerned about
the quality of university qualifications. Knowledge is a commodity, and we
can sell it to you, our customers. We will train you to be super-ready for
the marketplace; train you to know and to use the rules of your field of
study.
However, if you wish to move from ready knowledge to a situation of
formative education, if you wish to move from an existing situation to a
preferred one, then these words from one of the best writers, thinkers and
scientists of our age, Humberto Maturana, should point to way:
The Student's Prayer.
''Don't impose on me what you know,
I want to explore the unknown
And be the source of my own discoveries.
Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery.
The world of your truth can be my limitation;
Your wisdom my negation.
Don't instruct me; let's walk together.
Let my richness begin where yours ends.
Show me so that I can stand
On your shoulders.
Reveal yourself so that I can be
Something different.
You believe that every human being
Can love and create.
I understand, then, your fear
When I asked you to live according to your wisdom.
You will not know who I am
By listening to yourself.
Don't instruct me; let me be.
Your failure [would be] that I be identical to you.''
I was known for telling my students that I could not teach them anything,
nor would I give them any prepared notes, since the answers they were
searching for were not to be found in any of my articles, or those of
others, and not in any book they might get from the library. All of that
stuff would remain pure information and quite useless (unless you wish to
join the army, follow the rules and to not think, ever again) to a
reflective design practitioner, unless the student (of any age) is willing
to allow the information (from any source) to change his or her knowing
being, hence the fact that there are only theories of knowing instead of
theories of knowledge. A book is not a container for or of ready knowledge,
but it can be an impetus to ignite a formative knowing process.
Johann
Johann van der Merwe
Independent Design Researcher
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