The progress of dehumanization …

… The Dying Art of Instruction in the Digital Classroom | by Tim Parks | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The idea of a relationship between teacher and class, professor and students, is consequently eroded. The student can rapidly check on his or her smartphone whether the professor is right, or indeed whether there isn’t some other authority offering an entirely different approach. With the erosion of that relationship goes the environment that nurtured it: the segregated space of the classroom where, for an hour or so, all attention was focused on a single person who brought all of his or her experience to the service of the group.

I remain grateful for having been blessed with several outstanding teachers, especially Miss Parkinson, Mother Holmes, and Father Gannon. I an who I am largely thanks to them.

It is also worth remembering that information is not knowledge. Knowledge is information within its proper context.