A Rationale for Some Recent Work

I wrote the following to share with my students, but thought I would make it public. Thanks for reading.

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Understanding that many of you struggled with the New York Times article, “The Foul Reign of Emerson,” I thought it might be helpful for me to provide a rationale for why I assigned it.  As I said a number of times in class, the piece was challenging.  Benjamin Anastas wrote it with the Times readership in mind: a readership that is typically highly educated.  While you might not be a part of this target audience, I do believe that struggling and stretching can have positive outcomes in your ability to grasp difficult texts. Think of it this way, if you are an athlete you don’t want to practice and compete against others below your level.  To improve your skills, you need to be pushed by somebody at least at your level, if not beyond it.  I think the same holds true if you are a musician, painter, performer. Or reader.
Some of you might have felt the same frustration when you read Emerson’s “Self-Reliance.” Perhaps you found yourself wondering, “why would MrG put me through this?  Why do I need to know any of this anyway?”  That last question is a pretty common refrain regarding many things “learned” at school.  Why do I need to know this?
My answer: you don’t.
Being unfamiliar with Emerson, or Anastas’s criticism of him, will not relegate you to some kind of second class status or cost you a job.  But I think this is the wrong question to ask. When I learn something new, my question is, “how can this benefit me?”  And my answer to this question is that the more I learn, the more the world around me takes shape.

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Here’s the way I see it: due to my lack of knowledge, the world around me is obscured.  It’s dark.  Kind of like the night on the cusp of dawn when the outlines of objects can start to be discerned.  As I learn from others, whether it is Emerson, Einstein, an artist or colleague, these outlines become more substantial.  Objects present themselves.  The darkness recedes a little more.

C. Johnson

But there’s this as well: as these things I read and watch and listen to enlighten my world, they also help me to understand how to articulate my own ideas.  In essence, they allow me to take part in creating the world that is slowly announcing itself from the shadows.  Kind of like Harold with his purple crayon.

This is why I want to keep learning, even when that learning requires struggle and frustration.

So my question for you is this: what do you find it important to learn, even if it includes struggle, and why?