I am further than I was yesterday

I was thinking about Finding Forrester last night while writing and retreating into a book. I was thinking about the need for some knowledge seekers to also be knowledge gestapo who find pride and hubris in belittling what others know. I'm a lousy teacher, I suppose, because having the right or best answer was never what I was after. Instead, I pursued the potential every kid had for arriving to the answer that worked best to them.

Perhaps this is why this scene resonated with me when I first saw it. I wanted to be Jamal-like throughout my education and to have the ability to recall information that was valued by those who policed what it was to be known. Yet, my aptitude has never been with facts. Instead, my skill has rested upon working with facts to compose new meaning.

With this said, I completely understand all that is wrong with the "professor's" game-play here and I loved that he was called out on his own pride. I have empathy, however, to all youth who aren't able to buck wits against such ego.

This brings me back to where I stand philosophically with learning. Is it more important to drill into youth what needs to be known according to a traditional standpoint or to create a scaffold for students to grow with a desire to know more? I think the latter works best. And so...

I'll kick myself out of the room to learn more from Jamal.