Studying and Reading for what?

So Sally's socratic seminar was really helpful. I have done socratic seminars before, but this is the kind of seminar I really like--it was on a text that I had no idea what it meant. I like this because I feel like grappling with difficult texts makes for the best seminars. People are throwing out ideas, revising opinions, agreeing and disagreeing and adding clarifying questions. Francis Bacon's "Of  Studies" really prompted a lot of grappling from our SI group.

I was particularly interested in what Wendy and Kim had to say about Common Core and Readicide (by Kelly Gallagher). If we are to approach Bacon's essay as a call for balance in our quest for knowledge, there is something to be said about how we teach our students and how we value aspects of our discipline. I am wondering what the purpose of study has become. Bacon said that study was based on "delight, ornament and ability," but is that still true today? In our culture, this is what our studies have become:

This cartoon comes from Readicide, and I was really drawn by the text. Kim has already done a great summary of the book, which you can find on her blog, here. I really like the introduction to the text, because Gallagher is real about what testing means for how we design instruction. He notes that teaching to the test isn't bad, so long as the test is good. His words can be found below. 

I think as teachers we still push our students to study for ability and delight (perhaps ornament, too?). We worry about curriculum changes because we cling to what we learned and studied. We believe how we learned was best and that changes that take away what we learned are somehow depriving our students of something. I'm thinking a lot about what is important to study in a world of so much literature and so much language. Perhaps it is better to abandon whole novel studies (I remember reading 16 in my junior year alone) for excerpts that are targeted. Doing this may mean students engage in a more meaningful way? Are they getting more from studies? Common Core is all about building connections between disciplines--which I think is something Bacon essay would promote, but if we are to build these connections we have to forgo some details of our own disciplines. 

I often think about the fact that people talk about the lack of Renaissance figures, like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. These were men who totally submersed themselves in multiple fields. People remark that there are few like that, but it is important to note a couple of things before suggesting that this points to a decline in intellectuals. 1) There weren't many Renaissance figures back then either and 2 (and more to the point) We know so much more than was know back then...there's so much more to learn now! Our studies now must be more targeted, but as we discussed with the "Schoolmen," not too targeted. 

I'm also thinking about what this means for standardized writing and what Lacy has presented to us about grammar and conventions...I'm thinking a lot about what "authentic" means when we discuss writing, but more to come with that as I continue to tease out my thinking.