Re: Lyceum

hi colin, sandrine, george, just joined. george,
thanks for urging me to join, let's see where this
road goes ;)

hey marcus,

i found your format and style very legible. it was
that which made me read your entire post.

ditto on the Republic, Brave New World, Amusing
Ourselves to Death. you should get around to reading
Brave New World Revisited.

george and i are very good friends and he nudged me
about your e-mail because you mentioned starting a
Lyceum or rather (auto) Extazeum.

i'll be starting a Lyceum soon. i can go on a bit
about my perspective on education, but i won't try
your patience ;)

anyway, here's the deal, this school will offer:
1) world history
2) world religions
3) financial literacy
4) cooperative learning

hopefully after a student has gone through this short
program, s/he will understand the world better. it's
like that scene after Neo's resurrection when he is
able to see the codes of the Matrix and only then is
he able to manipulate it (yes i'm a Matrix freak ;) or
Rodimus Prime's unleashing of the Autobot Matrix that
defeats Unicron who is all consuming (perhaps this
reference is a bit old for you).

cooperative learning is where one student learns a
particular book and teaches the core ideas to others,
so everyone doesn't have to spend their times
individually reading that book. george and i are
already on this with several books.

don't worry, information may seem endless, but you'll
be surprised how little education one needs. in every
age, a teacher came (jewish history is filled with
them) who edited the content that passage of time has
produced, cut out the noise and made the signal clear
once again.

i don't know if this helped, but just wanted to share
with someone who i think is searching like i am.
perhaps we're looking at the same direction. looking
forward to your thoughts.

-cal

> --- In [email protected],
> "cybrmarc2001" 
> <marcusg@c...> wrote:
> Colin, 
>   I tracked down this site through your posts on one
> of the other 
> forums you're on.  You might recognize me from the
> Belize EcoVillage 
> forum, where I usually post under "Marcus S
> Gardner."  
>   I just read your first post, the chronology, and
> while I know it's 
> wrong to want your life, I do want your experience. 
> It seems to me 
> like you've done everything I've ever wanted to do,
> met so many 
> people, and so on.
>   Many of the things you said/listed in that post
> struck close to 
> home.  But among the strongest are these two:
> 
> -Began to consider developing a practice (like monks
> have practices)
> -Started the being group (for the discussion and
> creation of 
> experience).
> 
>   I posted my story on the Ecovillage forum, but
> I'll fast-forward 
> it for the other two people on this forum  (I like
> your list method):
> 
>   Grew up as sheltered, intelligent, pseudo-nerdy
> spoiled boy
>   Family relocated in 7th grade - new town was rich
> and had really 
> nice school - Alex, Rob
>   Depressed because I didn't have a zillion
> childhood friends in   
> this new place - spent a lot of time on the computer
>   Family spoiled me once again and moved back (for
> my sake) in 10th 
> grade
>   Wrote 53-page journal/pronouncement of love to my
> crush and best 
> friend since 5th grade - didn't talk to her for 6
> months - when we 
> finally talked "it" was gone - didn't talk for 2
> years
>   Sarah (1 week - she didn't really talk, so neither
> did I)
>   Jessica (2 weeks - she had smelly hair)
>   Maria (3 weeks, all we did was make out)
>   Sharp departure from my straight-edge past, began
> having parties 
> in my detached garage to make even more friends
>   Kevin, the cool crowd
>   New friends convinced me smoking pot was cool
>   Accepted to Brandeis University and University of
> New Hampshire
>   Went to Brandeis because UNH was my safety school
>   Using this new knowledge I got cooler and cooler,
> until I was too 
> cool to care about being cool anymore (that was my
> perspective)
>   During this time I met up with a number of other
> kids that believe 
> in the smoking pot=cool ideaology, gradually became
> disenchanted 
> with their disenchantment with the world:    Nick,
> Jon, Joe, their 
> girlfriends
>   Over freshman winter break told "coolest girl" in
> my HS class that 
> I loved her
>   Spent the next 6 months telling her I didn't love
> her through my 
> actions
>   Ashamed
>   Taking ancient Greek language, picked up the
> translated apology to 
> help me do my homework - fell in love with Plato and
> Socrates
>   Read Republic in 3 days - hiding from family with
> it in the closet 
> at Thanksgiving, also influenced heavily by Brave
> New World (scary) 
> and Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (it
> was a 
> spontaneous decision to read all of my course books
> in order to up 
> my grades, starting with Postman, but after him I
> decided I wanted 
> to read where the wind blew me)
>   Wrote a note to Jeanette (the journal girl),
> apologizing - not 
> really sure why/if I should have, but I was inspired
> at the time
>   Decided to leave Brandeis (this and the letter
> came on 
> Thanksgiving break)
>   Returned home and taking classes through the Dept.
> of Continuing 
> Education at UNH
>   Read almost all of Plato (in English - so I went
> and forgot most 
> of my Greek)
>   Called Jeanette, cheap conversation
>   Jeanette showed me around UNH, felt obligatory, I
> felt bad
>   Kevin "accidentaly" introduced to Daniel Quinn
> (not by someone 
> with an open mind, I mean)
>   Read all of Daniel Quinn, brancing out to Jensen,
> + others
>   Asked myself what sort of Tribal operation I would
> want to run
>   Lyceum --> Extazeum*
>   Waiting for my application as a full-time student
> @ UNH to go 
> through
>   Wondering if I really want this
>   Pretty sure I don't
> 
> You'll notice that there aren't any names after I
> transferred to 
> UNH.  That's because, among the friends I had in
> high school (town 
> next to UNH) that went to UNH, I for some reason
> can't stand most of 
> them.  They're on track, I'm trying as hard as I can
> to leave it, or 
> to convince myself that it's okay to leave it.  I
> play racquetball 
> occasionaly with Pat, but I really can't talk to
> him.  There's a 
> girl I'm somewhat enamored with, but she has a
> boyfriend.  That's 
> about it.  I've had 1-2 stimulating conversations
> since returning to 
> NH, but then again, maybe that's not so bad, because
> maybe those 
> were the first.  I'm very excited about the
> prospects of these 
> forums, EcoVillage Belize, Dragonvale, and possibly
> meeting some 
> people like you.  
> 
> A few weeks ago I e-mailed a girl I remembered from
> Brandeis.  I 
> remembered a few observations I'd made to make an
> outline of her 
> story - her being a whimsical pothead putting out a
> strong 
> projection of herself - her sitting in her dorm room
> next to a huge 
> pile of books telling us she didn't know where to
> buy because she 
> quit.  So I e-mailed her asking her what her story
> was.  A few days 
> ago she called back.  She had found God, she said. 
> She told me that 
> it sounded like I was crying out.  And that's
> exactly what I'm doing.
> 
> *Why I like your two comments on experience is
> because I believe in 
> those so strongly.  For me, my own experience has
> been my pure 
> sustenance for the past year.  I was dying at
> Brandeis because I had 
> restricted myself to the same experience with the
> same people, day 
> after day.  I am somewhat better off now, I think,
> but not by far.  
> Books don't compare to real people.  Unfortunately,
> I don't know 
> where to look.  Maybe I'm afraid to look.
> 
> When I came up with my idea for a modern-day Lyceum
> I thought it 
> could be a place to do what I'd always envisioned as
> the goal of my 
> academic career: open discussion, decision making
> and problem 
> solving.  I had always thought college and it's
> constituent classes 
> would be significant, that my peers and I would be
> adding to the 
> history of knowledge while we were in the class.  I
> thought 
> discussions would be incredibly fertile, people
> would open their 
> minds to new possibilities, finding answers in nooks
> and crannies 
> never before uncovered.  I know now that was
> incredibly idealistic 
> and naiive of me.  College is, if anything, less
> like that than high 
> school.  I feel like I'm submitting to the awesome
> grinding of the 
> 
=== message truncated ===


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