“Science is what is taught.” (Roland Barthes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A student learns what is known. What is sometimes called “academic” knowledge consists of everything that can be learned deliberately, all the truth (and even a little wisdom) that can be “passed on” through instruction. As a rough, imperfect approximation we can say that the university curriculum consists of what can be learned by reading a book and demonstrated by writing a paper. But there are of course trades that require instruction in workshops and, accordingly, more practical forms of examination. For this reason we sometimes distinguish between the student<\/em> and the apprentice<\/em>. But academic competence also includes a number of “craft skills” that are more easily presented and examined orally, or through exercise and observation. It might, then, be more accurate to define a student as someone who can learn something “in a class” — a group of people you shout at<\/a>, as the Romans put it. That is, a student learns things that can be communicated<\/em> by people who already know them to people who don’t. The student, ideally, pays attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Science is what is taught.” (Roland Barthes) A student learns what is known. What is sometimes called “academic” knowledge consists of everything that can be learned deliberately, all the truth (and even a little wisdom) that can be “passed on” through instruction. As a rough, imperfect approximation we can say that the university curriculum consists … Continue reading The Student<\/span>