Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!lll-winken!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!blackbird!dlindsle
From: dlindsle@blackbird.afit.af.mil (David T. Lindsley)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Against educational fads (was: math credit)
Message-ID: <1808@blackbird.afit.af.mil>
Date: 10 Dec 90 17:39:59 GMT
References: <39937@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15541@cs.utexas.edu> <39960@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology; WPAFB, OH
Lines: 35

In article <39960@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Thom Gillespie) writes:
>
> [lots deleted]
>
>THere is no cofusing the tool with the skill if you realize that there is no
>separation between the tool and the skill. If you can play the piano, the
>violin, the flute, then you can play music. If can't use the musical tools than
>you can't play music -- there is not music without the tool. If you can't weild
>a brush or a piece of lead then you can do the plastic arts:painting, printing,
>etc. Can you play basketball if you can't bounce and shot the ball?
>

Your analogy is inadequate. Writing deals with *ideas*. A closer parallel
would be between proficiency on an instrument and the ability to compose/
write music. And there have been no dearth of musical geniuses with 
minimal instrumental training... some of the folk/blues greats never learned
to read sheet music...
Likewise, one could be an excellent coach/strategist without knowing how
to shoot.
And what political philosophy/system do you know of that didn't need to
be tweaked before being put into practice? Here again, the theorists are
rarely the same people as the practitioners.
You fail to separate the creation and the execution/performance...

>Again, pencil and paper are tools just like a word processor, the alphabet is a
>tool for communication -- all language is a tool for communication. You only
>have skill when you have mastered the tool. There is no separation.
>
>--Thom Gillespie

Yes, *communication*. There is a difference between an idea and its
effective communication. Are you talking about writing/education just
as a means of communication? It should be more than that. It should
train the student to think. It's not just the medium, but having a
real, substantial message that's important.