The way we teach and learn has been broken for 300 years (but we can fix it)

“All lessons are delayed. Very few of us actually receive the lesson right there, when it is delivered to us.” –Al Filreis

Al Filreis (@Afilreis) is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the founder and Faculty Director of The Kelly Writers House, a non-profit, community organization dedicated to creative writing and the literary arts. He is also author of such books as Counter-revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-1960 and Modernism from Right to Left.

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Al discuss the underpinnings today’s educational framework (2:45); improving our educational process (20:00); self-learning (30:00); curation of content (44:00); Twitter and our ongoing societal dialogue (1:01:00); and pedagogy and the polis (1:17:00).

For more from Al, check out The Kelly Writers House, his PoemTalk podcast, or “The end of the lecture as we know it.”

Education-oriented links:

• MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)
• Modern Poetry (“ModPo”) MOOC (online course)
• TED (media organization)
• The Great Courses (audio courses)
• Coursera (education company)
• iTunes U (audio courses)
• edX (MOOC provider)
• Chautauqua (19th century adult education movement)

Other links:

• Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (novel)
• Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (novel)
• Colonialism (national imperial policy)
• William Carlos Williams (poet)
• Emily Dickerson (poet)
• Triumph of the Will (German propaganda film)
• Schindler’s List (film)
• Rambo (film series)
• Free Speech Movement (student protest)
• Quakers (religious theology)
• Lutheranism (religious theology)
• Socratic method (teaching theory)
• Net neutrality (principle)
• Desegregation in Yonkers (political campaign)
• Shooting of Stephon Clark (police shooting)
• ProPublica (non-profit newsroom)
• Slate Culture Gabfest (podcast)
• Stephon Clark: Rhythms of Tragedy, by Charles M. Blow (article)
• #NeverAgain (student gun-control movement)
• Third Reich (sociopolitical period)
• National Socialism (sociopolitical ideology)
• Wannsee Conference (meeting of Nazi leadership)
• Vietnam War (Wikipedia entry)
• Battle of Dien Bien Phu (battle during First Indochina War)

This episode was recorded at Kelly Writers House on the UPenn campus, with the help of Wexler Studio coordinator Zach Carduner. The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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