Sunday, September 23, 2007

Wise Woman...

Just a short post this time. Here's something else to fling into the "aims of education" pot. In her author's note to the 1962 edition of her novel, WISE BLOOD, Flannery O'Connor says: "Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is NOT able to do? (emphasis mine) I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will but many wills conflicting in one man." Is an educated person one who can read and recognize these words? One who can read and understand them well enough to dismiss them because they are not easily understood? One who can understand them well enough to arrive at a possible meaning? One who, though he does not understand them to start with, is so determined to understand that he will read them again and again, in pursuit of that meaning? (Actually, it would be interesting to hear what people think they do mean...)