'A little learning is a dangerous thing...'

Before I give my opinion on you –

Classroom Musings and Blended Learning

This morning, in our II MA class, we were discussing the ‘Men of Learning’ of the fifteenth century, and their contributions to the ‘Renaissance and the Rejuvenation of the arts’ in England!

In this regard, Legouis and Cazamian observe that, ‘Thought was liberated and broadened…’ chiefly due to these ‘Men of Learning’ and their contributions to their times.

I then exhorted the students to have a critical bent of mind (not negative though!) while observing and reading through some of the phrases and prefixes, the stigmas and stereotypes, the gender and the genre, the contexts and the conditions that make someone/something /somebody to be the dominant voice/s of a particular epoch/era/period!

Repeating that wonderful phrase by Legouis and Cazamian yet again, ‘Thought was liberated and broadened…’

And this was possible because of the men of learning, he says!

In this context, it would be meet to know something about these men of learning per se, alley!

Getting back to L & C yet again –

During some thirty years, from 1490 to 1520, there was in England an efflorescence of humanism which was accomplished by a few vibrant spirits. Some young Englishmen were attracted to Italy by the desire to learn Greek, since knowledge of Greek had been carried to Italy by refugees after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. They were eager to see the masterpieces that these fugitive Greeks had saved and brought with them, and in search of these, they journeyed to Florence, Bologna, Padua, Venice and Rome.

The result of their passionate ‘desire for new learning’ had such a profound impact on the English spirit, contributing to the Renaissance in England!

One reason why the Renaissance in England is called the Italian Renaissance. As Legouis and Cazamian opine, English literature which came to be the expression of the national genius had its Birth in Italianism. The meeting between the English and the Italian spirit which had already enriched Chaucer’s poetry brought a wealth of splendor to sixteenth-century England.

Starting with Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, - ‘Men of Learning’ who went to Italy, in their passion to learn the classics, returned to Oxford about 1490 and established the teaching of Greek, there was literally and exodus of these scholars who moved to greener and better pastures with the avowed aim of learning from them!

Again, in this context, I told the class, If you are Wo/men of learning, you will have a great desire, a great passion, and a great thirst to learn more and more!

And why should you learn more and more from other cultures / alien shores?

Simple! To incorporate, to imbue and to imbibe the best that has been said and expressed through ‘other eyes and other voices’, in other parts of the whole wide world!

To this end, it becomes imperative on the part of a vibrant learner to make sure that  s/he crosses over to other places/other cultures/other continents to learn more!

As noted critic Scupin Richard rightly points out, 

More learning leads to a more inclusive celebration of life!

A guy born in Chennai, brought up in Chennai, studied in Chennai, gets for himself a job in Chennai, marries in Chennai, and lives all his life in Chennai is, then, not the right type of education, say educationists!

‘The same applies to language! The same to culture! The same to religion!’, I told the very same class today!

Say for example, if you are well-versed in just one language – your vernacular – just for an example, and then, tom-tom across the world that your language is the bestest language ever ;-) – then that would be much akin to practicing a parochial perspective to life and living!

The same applies to culture! The same applies to religion! Before commenting on a language/culture/religion make sure you learn that language/that culture/that religion, its values, its essence, its nature, its features, its origin, its practices, its observances, its rituals, et al!

A good critic is someone who has drunk deep of all literatures before s/he passes their remarks/values/opinions on a particular work of art!

Yes! This applies in essence to a good movie critic, a good sports critic, a good food critic et al!

That means to say that, 

Before I pass my comments on Judaism, I should have mastered the basic tenets of Judaism for myself.

Before I pass my observations on Hinduism, I should have mastered the basic tenets of Hinduism for myself.

Before I pass my observations on Islam, I should have mastered the basic tenets of Islam for myself.

Before I pass my opinions on Christianity, I should have mastered the basic premises of Christianity for myself.

Added, let’s also remember that, 

A half-baked mastery over anything is quite dangerous!

That’s hence the reason why celebrated critic Alexander Pope says that – and so beautifully at that –

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring!

That takes us next to the the proverbial saying of yore which goes thus – ‘Before criticizing a person, walk a mile in their shoes’!

Dear gentle reader, shall we all, together, take a resolve today, rightaway at that, this very moment at that, 

that - 

Before I pass my observations on any person, let me make sure and reassure myself, again and again and again and again and again, that, I’ve at least walked one whole mile in their shoes!

So much for an inclusive attitude to life and to people! To living life a better way!

Without doing these basics, if I chumma pass value judgements on a person, big or small, girl or boy, man or woman, language or culture, people or nation, I might be rightly called, (and I literally wrote it down on our white-marker board in class) –

Yes!!! ;-)

Without doing these basics, if you chumma pass value judgements on a person, big or small, girl or boy, young or old, man or woman of any language or culture, people or nation, you might be rightly called, a moron! ;-)

A blinkered, tinkered moron of the lowest order!

They may be what Charles Lamb would notoriously call, ‘the most irrelevant thing in nature, a piece of impertinent correspondence, an odious approximation, a haunting conscience, a preposterous shadow, lengthening in the noontide of our prosperity’.

So what’s the implication for us? You may ask, dear gentle reader!

Yup! Before you key in your comment on any issue/any person/anything in the comments box of any channel/Social Networking site/website, make sure you have walked a mile in the other’s shoes! 

Else, as the eminent Tintinologist Scupin Richard citing the chella fellas Thompson and Thomson rightly opines -

‘Mum’s the word, that’s our motto’.

‘Well said!... To be precise: Dumb’s the word’, that’s our motto’.

Ketto!??? ;-)

images: hiclipartdotcom, thesunpapersdotcom