It defines our thinking and feeling. At
some moment in time, after the division between physical and
intellectual work took place, this thinking became relatively
free of the result. The abstraction of thinking, once attained,
corresponds to our ability to be in the process, to be aware of
it, to judge it. This is the level of theories. The dynamics of
the present affects the status of theories, both the way we
shape them and how we communicate them. At least in regard to the
communication of theory, but also to some of its generation, it
is worthwhile to examine, in the context of our concern with
education in this age, the evolution of the university.
Temples of knowledge
Education became the institution, the machine of literacy, once
the social role of a generalized instrument of communication and
coordination was established. This happened simultaneously with
the reification of many other forms of human praxis: religion,
the judiciary, the military. The first Western universities
embodied the elitist ideal of literacy in every possible way:
exclusivity, philosophy of education, architecture, goals,
curriculum, body of professors, body of students, relation to the
outside world, religious status. These universities did not care
for the crafts, and did not acknowledge apprenticeship. The
university, more than schools (in their various forms), extended
its influence beyond its walls to assume a leading role in the
spiritual lives of the population, while still maintaining an
aura about itself.
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