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Learning While Sitting While Riding
North Miami Beach, FL March
18, 2001 Aaron H.
Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
LEARNING WHILE
SITTING WHILE RIDING
I haven't been to class for some time now. Well, that's not quite true.
Saturday morning I had the privilege to sit while in Temple and learn how to
give a great lecture from a librarian. That is another story. Now, let me
explain about sitting on my bicycle and listening to a lecture via earphones
and tape recorder.
This morning I tried out a new short course on the Sophists that was
included among audiotapes and videotapes I purchased from "Teaching Company,
Ltd." I withhold judgement about how much learning takes place in this mode
of instruction until after finishing the two lengthy courses I purchased.
The short course on Sophists took only about 15 minutes to complete which
was just about enough time during the 35 minute trip to finish up a ten mile
bike trek.
It occurred to me that the lecturer didn't like the Sophists very much. He
is a 21st Century man and while a scholar is rooted in his own time. The
Sophist were THE teachers in Pre-Socratic times from about 400 to 300 Before
the Common Era. In fact Socrates, around 350 B.C.E, railed at the Sophists
because they charged MONEY to teach a bunch of courses to the citizens of
Athens and other centers around the Mediterranean.
I got to thinking how I taught about the Sophists and the Socratic riposte
to expensive learning back in the days when I masqueraded as a teacher of
educational philosophy. It was then that I hit a bump in the road. Now my
bike has twin fork springs, a major spring affecting the rear wheel and a
lot of springs in the ergonomic seat. While rising cushioned in the air
from that bump, the seat of my intelligence was bruised in the knowledge
that this teacher I was listening to charged for his services and probably
collected a royalty from his fifteen-minute stint. Well, so it goes.
Despite my non-elitist beliefs, my education was in an Ivy League
university and I always yearned for more than was my lot. What I would have
given to be a Sophist during their times. Carol's Evaluation: 9.5 out of
10.
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