Re: why can't J&J write?

[96BANDY@wmich.edu]

The opening comment of Tom Smith's post on J&J triggered a memory that seems
somehow appropriate.  I worked for an old hippy who raised and sold parrots
(during my dropout years between undergrad institutions); he had a parrot who
would say, among many other things, the following:

Take me to Tahiti

I can talk; can you fly?

Not to compare students to parrots, but consumerism taught by the teacher or
institution?  Assumptions about students' abilities?

Obviously, this could be interpreted many different ways.  Parrots learn most
of what they do by mimickry, but I could never be absolutely certain of that
birds lack of real contextual understanding (or its presence).  For instance,
he would whistle just like his owner and the dogs would come running into the
empty room and get confused because Bil (the owner) wasn't there.  Obviously
mimickry at work.  But Beemer, the bird, would be very quiet and watch the
dogs from the back of his cage until they left the room.  He would wait five
minutes, and do it again, apparently, just to watch the dogs act stupid.  I
don't think Bil taught the bird that part of the game.  WHat do we teach
students about answering questions, for instance, that is taught
inadvertantly?  Hmmm.
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