Now for my badly flawed typing….I agree and I think most serious educators do that there is important base knowledge but too often education has stopped at the level of memorization and rote answers and students have not been given the pleasure of understanding and the ability to construct knowledge for themselves.

This issue is even more critical in the digital age because of the sources of knowledge.

I do agree with your distinction between factual knowledge and deep understanding, but there is more reason than that to fear the “you can Google anything you need to know” argument. That assumes you know what you need to know, and that Google remains unbiased.

If you don’t have the understanding, you might not even suspect the things you should know. For example, if you don’t know history at all, how are you to recognise those times when past lessons are being ignored? And even if Google is a reasonably unbiased, if flawed, source at the moment, what about the possibility the “source of all knowledge” could be subverted in the future? Knowing nothing but how to search, how could you do anything but uncritically accept the altered information?

Of course you’re an exception to the caste system.

I winced a bit at the analogy because it’s so mixed, but blogging ain’t crafting by its very nature (which is one of its dangers as a language arts tool).

Chris in Honolulu and I are planning a reflective wrap-up of the 1001 Tales within the next couple of weeks–teachers and students will have their say. Chris is going to podcast it, I think. I’m sure we’ll do a text version too. So stay tuned. (Short version: for the motivated and literarily inclined, it was worthwhile. The perennial classroom problems–unmotivated students, poorly managed instruction–were challenges we faced here as well. But it’s a first run, so that’s not surprising.)

I think your comment about “knowledge v. the pleasures of understanding” might have a typo or two, so I’ll hold off on replying there

Nice to hear from you, as always.

I for one have missed your voice and our conversations. I appreciate your questioning an it always causes me to reflect on my own practice and vision.

I hope I am an exception to your comment on departmentalized reading…I have always tried to read a wide variety of blogs and I find that classroom teachers give me som of the best insights for my role as an administrator.

There is a lot in your post that I want to think about and comment on but I will come back later. A couple of thoughts or questions… How do your students feel about the 1001 Tales experience? Blogs are a tool it is out pedagogy that matters. I do not mean that as a pat answer but it really my focus.
we are doing everything in our power to change the face of teaching and learning in our school so that students think and interact with knowledge. I believe in bases knowledge but I do belief that memorizing answers for a test is effective learning or teaching. I haven’t visited your class wiki on the War recently but I will and then I will enter the conversation about knowledge we can google and knowledge we need to grapple with.

Anyway…welcome back!