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The answer to the first question, I think is "no", we can't quantify how much people know although I'm certain numerous professionals in the field will argue that point. One being an old ex-college friend, that I lost touch with two years back, whose job was partly to do just that -- quantify how much others learned or rather devise a method of figuring it out. We used to have arguments regarding how it was possible for someone who'd never taught to determine whether others were being taught, whether they'd learned, and what the best method was for determining that. Standardized tests? Portfoilos of the students work? Oral examinations? Is person A brighter than B just because they happen to be able to figure out a word problem in five minutes flat? Or is B brighter because they can analyze a poem and understand it?
The second question is no easier to answer, and arose twice for me this week, once in a book and now again in the movie I saw tonight, The History Boys - which poses both questions and does not exactly answer either. Just as it poses many other questions, some that make you squirm a bit with discomfort.
The best films, I've decided, are those in which leave you thinking, turning them over in your head, long after they've finished, replaying portions of scenes, pulling apart characters, wondering at themes. The ones that leave us with more questions than answers. Or at least they are for me.
If I learned anything in 2006, a theme echoed by this film if only in my own mind, it was this, not to let others define or pigeon hole me - to tell me what to like or what to want or think or define me solely by those things, and by the same token not to tell others who they are or what they should like. We are our own beings perceived differently each time we are seen, but only known completely by ourselves which is both tragic and glorious.
But I digress.
The second question...what is history? ( What follows is a review of The History Boys. I cut for vague spoilers and to save you real estate on your flist. )
The second question is no easier to answer, and arose twice for me this week, once in a book and now again in the movie I saw tonight, The History Boys - which poses both questions and does not exactly answer either. Just as it poses many other questions, some that make you squirm a bit with discomfort.
The best films, I've decided, are those in which leave you thinking, turning them over in your head, long after they've finished, replaying portions of scenes, pulling apart characters, wondering at themes. The ones that leave us with more questions than answers. Or at least they are for me.
If I learned anything in 2006, a theme echoed by this film if only in my own mind, it was this, not to let others define or pigeon hole me - to tell me what to like or what to want or think or define me solely by those things, and by the same token not to tell others who they are or what they should like. We are our own beings perceived differently each time we are seen, but only known completely by ourselves which is both tragic and glorious.
But I digress.
The second question...what is history? ( What follows is a review of The History Boys. I cut for vague spoilers and to save you real estate on your flist. )
