The Loss of the Package
One of the biggest riddles of the human being is the brain. How do our minds work, and what makes them work best? We are able to process and store large amounts of information, and then reason with it. Since the days of Ancient Greece the Western World has sought to institutionalize the learning process in order to make it more effective. However there are some that argue we may have gone too far, and that in doing so we have stripped away the true essence of learning. Author Walker Percy is one of those individuals. He theorizes that through the modern-day educational process, the student loses a great deal of learning through educational "packaging" such as teachers, textbooks and directions. To support his argument he compares two individuals, a Falkland Islander observing a dogfish that washes ashore and a biology student dissecting the same fish in a laboratory experiment. Percy argues that the islander better experiences the being that is the fish, whereas the biology student observes only a specimen of the fish, and the difference is that this specimen is part of the educational package. The term specimen makes the fish one of many, and no different from the tools, instructors, biological jargon and peers around
Is our education system today perfect? Of course not. What we need to improve it is the kind of scrutiny put on it by people like Percy. In small doses, his ideas may even improve the current system. However, he fails anywhere in his essay to acknowledge any practical application of his abstract concepts. Nonetheless packaging in education is necessary as it forces the student to absorb jargon, definitions, concepts and ideas and organize them in his mind. As a result a more valuable member of society is produced, for he can communicate quicker and better with his peers. Lets look at Percy's comparison of the Falkland Islander and the biology lab student. Granted after much prodding with a stick, the boy will learn how the fish works. He may even be able to identify which organs do what. However he cannot identify which organ is which. This is where packaging plays a very important role in education. The biology student may be worried or distracted over his homework assignments and test scores, however he gains the ability to be able to communicate with others (his peers for example) about the fish. When posing a question about or referring to its small intestine, every single other student in the room will know instantly what he is talk
Some common words found in the essay are:
Falkland Islander, Walker Percy, Western World, , falkland islander, biology student, able communicate, biology lab, amounts information, students' future, island boy, ability able, biological jargon,
Approximate Word count = 848
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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