Mrs. Bedeaux on why we learn.
I remember some things from senior year of HS?
Hi friends.
I have so many drafts in my substack right now. I feel like timeliness/relevance is important in newsletters (is that what this is?). In any case, this is going to be a short post just so I can get some info out there.
My 11th & 12th grade english teacher (I guess La Cueva didn’t have enough teachers? In any case, I’m grateful) was full of quips and life lessons.
“Why do we learn?” she would ask.
“To get the joke.”
This works on at least two levels. First, the more we learn and the deeper contextual understanding we have, the better we may empathize, and the fuller we can relate to, and with, others. Our capacity for simply understanding is much larger. As I come across new information, I can add to an ever-expanding map, placing new information with better context. And along the way, maybe I can understand a reference, or recognize word play when maybe others don’t.
Second, I think this spoke somewhat to her overall philosophy. I haven’t chatted with her about this but I would posit that her worldview on life, on existence, is that it is THE one, big joke. That’s the joke. Dominant culture asks that we “be serious”, that playfulness is reserved for those earlier stages of life. But Mrs. Bedeaux, I felt, had a sense of continuous progress, of learning and improving, in a state of becoming. Baked into her view was the silent “to get the joke” as in, to see the humor in it all. And there’s a levity about the world, an emotional buffer that’s provides some distance, when we see it all as one, big cosmic joke.
Do you have any quips or perspectives you pulled from high school or college teachers? I’d love to hear what wisdom they imparted upon you. Leave a comment and some details below.
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