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Chapter VEducational CriticismEvery critic, like every artist, has a bias, a predilection, that is bound up with the very existence of individuality. It is his task to convert it into an organ of sensitive perception and of intelligent insight, and to do so without surrendering the instinctive preferences from which are derived direction and sincerity.John DeweyThe Meaning of CriticismIn Art as Experience, John Dewey writes, "The aim of criticism is the re-education of the perception of the work of art" (1934, p. 324). It is aconception I embrace, and one that I will examine here as it pertains, notprimarily to works of art, but to works of education, particularly to thepractice of schooling.In the previous chapter I discussed the meaning of connoisseurship andits relationship to five dimensions of schooling. Connoisseurship, unlike criticism, is a private act. Its aim is to appreciate the qualities that constitute some object, situation, or event. To be a connoisseur in some domain means to notice or experience the significant and often subtle qualities that constitute an act, work, or object and, typically, to be able to relate these to the contextual and antecedent conditions. But connoisseur-ship imposes no obligation upon the connoisseur to articulate or justify, to explain or persuade: One can be a connoisseur of fine wine without f uttering a word about its quality. One can appreciate an excellent—or not so excellent— teacher in action without writing a report, telling an administrator, or providing feedback to the teacher. Connoisseurship can be and most often is the quiet act of appreciation.Because connoisseurship is basically private, it has, by itself, little socialutility. Of course, those who have high levels of connoisseurship in, say,furniture are more likely to look for and buy what they regard as being ofhigh quality—within the limits of their budget. Nevertheless, the fact thatsomeone is a connoisseur in some domain has relatively little import forthose who are not. For connoisseurship to have a public presence, must turnto criticism, for criticism provides connoisseurship with a public face.________________________86________________________Chapter VEducational connoisseurship gives access to the complex and subtleaspects of educational phenomena, and it is through such access thateducational critics secure the content they need to function as critics. Ifconnoisseurship can be regarded as the art of appreciation, criticism can bethought of as the art of disclosure. The primary function of the critic iseducational. By "educational" I mean providing the material through whichperception is increased and understanding deepened. To do this the criticmust be able to function as a connoisseur. And in educational matters, thecritic must function as an educational connoisseur. Criticism depends uponawareness of qualities and their antecedent and contextual conditions for itscontent: One can be a great connoisseur without being a critic, but onecannot be a critic of any kind without some level of connoisseurship.The task of the critic is to perform a mysterious feat well: to transformthe qualities of a painting, play, novel, poem, classroom or school, or act ofteaching and learning into a public form that illuminates, interprets, andappraises the qualities that have been experienced. Since there is no literallinguistic equivalent for qualities per se, the task cannot be simpletranslation. With no rules of equivalence, there is no one-to-one correspon-dence of referent to symbol. Thus every act of criticism is a reconstruction.The reconstruction takes the form of an argued narrative, supported byevidence that is never incontestable; there will always be alternativeinterpretations of the "same" play, as the history of criticism so eloquentlyattests.1 Further, even the qualities described in any critical account are notnecessarily either all that could have been described or those that othercritics might have described. In short, selection is always at work in boththe perception and the critical portrayal of what has been seen.The roots of criticism are found in the ordinary activities of daily life.Whenever people make judgments about the qualities of things—food to bepurchased, arguments engaged in, music heard, policies and laws enacted,meals eaten, games played or observed—connoisseurship and criticism arepresent. It is in our self-interest to be able to describe and appraise what weexperience: It is a necessary skill in our negotiations with others and indeciding what a situation calls for. Young children acquire such skills asthey learn to play with others and as they try to argue their case wheninevitable differences of opinion emerge. Indeed, the sports arena remains abastion of vernacular criticism, not written for the intelligentsia, but for theman or woman in the street. Consider the language in the followingdescription of a sports event.It's chaos in the open court. Just the way Knicks guard Gerald Wilkinslikes it. The Cavaliers are sprinting back, now turning around andtrying to find a man—any man—to guard as Wilkins pushes the ballinto his frontcourt with two lefthand dribbles.Wilkins drives right into the upper part of the lane. Halfway_______________________87________________________The Meaning of Criticismdown the avenue massive Cavs center Brad Daugherty is just starting toraise his arms into a defensive position as Wilkins, a 6-6 leaper, plantsand then launches himself for the little pull-up jumper, fading awayslightly from the basket. Daugherty, late this time and never aparticularly good jumper, has no chance on the play. But behind him,screened from Wilkins' view, lurks John "Hot Rod" Williams.Williams, number 18 in the Cavs' home whites, is crouched downlow, head up, with both arms extended to the sides. At 6-11, 230, he isone of the skinniest power forwards in the league. He's mostly legs; hiswaist happens two-thirds of the way up his body (the knee bend is one-third marker). The thighs are thick and strong-looking but from therehe narrows, chest not at all deep, all the way to his smallish head.As Wilkins releases the ball at the top of his jump, Williamsextends, leaping over and across Daugherty. His right arm, a thincylinder, seemingly the same diameter from


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NAU ECI 322 - Educational Criticism

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