Socrates say

Cory Burton
Eng 297
Dr. Mueller
10/12/07

For me, then, the conference ended with an important subtheme—ended by sticking up for a side of the profession that often gets lost in high school and college English deparments: play, storytelling, the personal, amateur, imaginative, affective, and informal. I’m not saying that the profession suffers from too much of what is professional, cognitive, analytic, and pragmatic; there cant be too much of those good things—only too little of the other side. Nothing need be lost, but something need to be gained. (Elbow 205)

This passage illustrates the delicate balance that every teacher and professor has to control in the classroom; the balance between keeping things fun and interesting while maintaining a sense of order and not losing the analytical portion of the class.

Education as the practice of freedom—as opposed to education as the practice of domination—denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without people, but people in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and world are simultaneous; consciousness neither precedes the world nor follows it. (Friere 62)

This passage, however abstract it may be, plays the same dichotomy card in the education world. Prior to this segment, Freire talks of the struggles of students to relate themselves in the world and with the world. Along these same lines here, he tries to put the classroom on a grand scale while still invoking the challenges.

It may well be that, at least in certain contexts, the ability to read and write encourages a more abstract form of thinking, for one can now define terms with precision, refer back to facts and definitions that were presented some time before, and weigh the logical and persuasive elements of an argument. The capacity to employ various symbolized notations enables one to supplement one’s memory, organize one’s future activities, and communicate at one time with an indefinite number of individuals (the set of all potential readers). (Gardner 359)

This may not apply directly to the student-teacher relationship, but it does have a profound effect on teachers helping kids to understand the concept. The process of reading and writing must be taught as a process to help formulate better thinking processes and enhance even more benefits.

Human nature being what it is, however, it tends to seek its motivation in the agreeable rather than in the disagreeable, in direct pleasure rather than in alternative pain. And so has come up the modern theory and practice of the “interesting,” in the false sense of that term. The material is still left; so far as its own characteristics are concerned, just material externally selected and formulated. (Dewey 205-206)
Students and teachers may both try to take the easy way out. Dewey goes on to say that it is easier to leave the information as it is, but sugar coat it to arouse interest and to make it seem interesting. What should really be done however is to apply it to something the student actually cares about, so they can develop and formulate their own thoughts on the process and think for themselves.