education

In our DIY Writing class we have been reading Walden. I hadn’t realized the extent to which Thoreau can be counted as one of the founders of DIY thinking. This is great, because to me the DIY mindset is synonymous with computers and writing. And probably something that will be needed to save English studies, help transform education, and bring fulfillment to people.

The links to contemporary phenomena like Web 2.0 or creative pedagogy and DIY are nothing new. But the founding sounds in Walden push what might become too practical a focus back into idea space. For Thoreau there is a kind of DIY ontology that threads through our conceptual and educational endeavors:

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. (9)

For education:

My presentation for Saturday at the Computers and Writing Conference. It's quite a mix of personal, expressive writing pushed through the screen with a hard backing of sound. Not sure what folks will make of it, but I've been in the zone for days composing the thing.