Sunday, January 26th (3-5 p.m.) Compound Yellow 244 Lake St. Oak Park, IL 60302 free and open to the public, all ages | You're invited to come to "What Is Knowledge in the Humanities, and Can It Save Our Humanity?" -- the next program in our Radical Pedagogies series, to be led by Amy Thomas Elder. What do we mean by knowledge in the humanities, and can it save our humanity? A week doesn't go by without a new "defense" or justification or abject plea for the humanities, on the grounds that they produce empathy or critical thinking skills or personal fulfillment or civil society or some other supposed economic, political, or personal good. I would like to discuss what the humanities produce that is not reducible to other supposed goods--i.e. the special kind of knowledge we gain from the humanities--along with what the implications of this knowledge are, both in our own lives and as educators of whatever kind. Our discussion will begin with Plato's Allegory of the Cave and will draw upon the experience of the group. Mine is chiefly in teaching in the Clemente Course in the Humanities--a college humanities course for adults living on low incomes--and in the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago. This program is part of the Radical Pedagogies series, which is co-presented by Borderbend and Compound Yellow.
|