In a comment on an earlier post, Bill Kerr asked, “Is there an educational metaphor here?” Like Graham, I’m a fan of wordplay, and this tugged at my imagination. Bill’s question lead me to a new understanding, which is:
There is always an educational metaphor.
I put this new idea to the test.
- Education is a path.
- Education is a journey.
- Education is a game.
- Education is a joke.
- Education is an industry.
- Education is a racket.
- Education is a shield.
- Education is a weapon.
- Education is a tool.
- Education is a gift .
It’s late right now, and I can’t remember all the examples I concocted, but you get the idea.
Practically everywhere I looked I could name a thing, apply it to education, and come out with a new meaning. Education can be almost anything we say it is. How are we going to get a grip on such a slippery thing? One of the difficulties teachers have in talking about what we do is that there are too many competing visions for schools, teachers, learning, technology, students, and everything else that has anything to do with education.
George Lakoff recognized that conceptual metaphors pair abstractions with concrete targets as a way of restricting meaning. We do it unconsciously all the time.
“What does education mean to you?” would be a great question to send home with students.
‘Education’ means so many different things that the term is practically meaningless.
- Education is nonsense.
See?
update: Saturday afternoon, Aug. 12 – Feedburner and Bloglines seem to be having a communication problem. I made a small edit here to see if the feed has been reset.
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