Compare & Contrast Essay: Bly, Perry and Agaasiz
"Facts are stupid things until brought into connection with some general law", Professor Agassiz said. Without general laws, facts are simply just random knowledge that can be applied to nothing, and would show absolutely nothing. Moreover, without general laws, facts can sometimes contradict themselves. Among authors who have written about this theme are Carol Bly of "Growing Up Expressive", and William G. Perry Jr. of "Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts". In "Growing Up Expressive", Carol Bly maintained that most teachers today want their students to have fun with their writing. Having fun is fine, Bly said, but perhaps "we writing teachers might do better to help them to explore the serious sites in their minds." She continued that we should "try to encourage them to express their mind, and acknowledge what they say". Whether
recounts the story of a Harvard student who received an 'A' on an essay about two books he'd never read in an exam for a class he never attended, but managed to "bull" having only the name of the course, the titles of the books, and the author's names. "Perry goes on to say, "good bull appears not as ignorance at all but as an aspect of knowledge. On the other hand, the cow, who knows only the facts, requires an entirely separate level of understanding that is not as easily attained. Rather than to respond to children, "Thanks for sharing", Bly encourages teachers and parents to make their child interpret the general law by asking them follow up questions. He notes that in grammar school we are taught facts, in college those facts are being questioned and then we realize how little we know. Applying the facts to laws allows for an explanation of occurrences in nature and show why things work the way they do. Perry classifies most students into two categories where they either; "bull" or "cow," defined as such: To bull is "to present evidence of an understanding of form in the hope that the reader may be deceived into supporting a familiarity with content", and to cow is "to present evidence of hard work as a substitute for understanding without any intent to deceive. the theme deals with "love, death, the cruelty of power, and time's curve past the stars" children are writing or drawing about, they usually express the facts, but they tend not show the general laws in which the facts are derived from. For example, when we were told the fact that the sun appears to rise, but the sun does not really rise, the world just tilts. Comparing Agassiz with Bly and Perry, it can be easily said that they would all agree that without general laws, facts are nothing. In "Examsmanship and the Liberal Arts", William G Perry Jr. He emphasizes that either bull or cow alone doesn't amount to much, which the goal would be a mixture of the two, though still, the bull is more valuable than the cow. Near the end of the essay, Perry shows us how facts sometimes can be contradicting. " In a university setting good bull is therefore of more value than "facts," which, without a frame or reference, are not even "true" at all.
Common topics in this essay:
Perry Jr,
Carol Bly,
Professor Agassiz,
Bly Perry,
,
william perry jr,
growing expressive,
William Perry,
Growing Expressive,
examsmanship liberal arts,
Liberal Arts,
liberal arts,
perry jr,
william perry,
carol bly,
examsmanship liberal,
Examsmanship Liberal,
bull cow,
|
Acceptance Essays
