Re: Concurrent studies, generalists... LO318

Dr. Ivan Blanco (BLANCO@BU4090.BARRY.EDU)
Fri, 3 Mar 1995 16:42:18 -0500 (EST)

> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 13:50:37 -0800 (PST)
> From: "Kent D. Palmer, Ph.D." <palmer@netcom.com> LO292

<<<< lots of stuff deleted here >>>

Kent, thanks a lot for your messages. You are really making me
even more aware of my own ignorance, and that's very important.

> Actually I often study multiple disciplines at a time. I rarely get over
> five. The more you study simultaneously the more insights you get but the
> less you really understand the discipines. Why do I do this. It is
> normally because I want to communicate with a specialists so I need to
> brush up on his speciality in order to talk to him. I might want to talk
> to several specialialists at about the same time.
>
I do this too, although I try to keep myself up to date in two
areas. I try to convay to my students how important it is to study or to
acquire some knowledge of multiple disciplines. The areas in which I
teach, management and international business, are by nature
multi-discipline fields. There is not a more specific field such as in
math and other areas!

<<<< more stuff deleted here >>>>

> The
> philosopher is ignorant and realizes he is ignorant and so he is open to
> thinking with others and learning things that none of the participants
> knew before. The cultivation of ignorance or wonder is the highest
> calling and is what increases learning possibilities to the utmost. It is
> the philosopher who stand on the edge at which emergent things arise into
> existence. Finding that edge is the next goal beyond the increase in
> learning capacity beyond dual or multi learning. The ultimate learning
> organization is the one that leans out toward that edge that boders on
> the void looking for what will appear from nowhere that is novel.
> Philosophical ignorance is an embracing of that void. THAT is wisdom.
> When you do that you become open to the Wonder and Awe inspiring nature
> of existence in which meaning floods out from the void.
>

For the last ten years, I have been sharing with my students a
quote from Daniel Boorstin, a former Librarian of Congress, from Tulsa,
Oklahoma. The quote goes: "To breed dissatisfaction is the purpose of
education - to make people dissatisfied with what they already know.
People who are not dissatisfied - complacent people- are not educable. And
they are not likely to get anything out of their education." I spend some
time at the biginning of the semester discussing this quote with them, and
call their attention to it once in a while during the semester - just in
case. I don't want them to forget what it means! I think that we must
learn how to learn to move from the nucleus of our fields of study to the
fringes of that field, and back! I still don't know exactly the answer to
this question. But what I practice, I think, allows me to do this. I stay
within the management field for some time; then move into the international
business field for some time; then I found myself discussing issues
regarding the Fire Department in Caracas, Venezuela; or working as an
administrator (currently, Director of International Business Programs),
etc. Every time I change hats, I have go through the fringes of one field
to get to the next! And here is where I find how important it is to study
different fields at the same time...

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Thanks from another ignorant.

Ivan,

***************************************************************
R. IVAN BLANCO, Ph.D. Voice 305 899-3515
Assoc. Prof. & Director Fax 305 892-6412
International Business Programs
Andreas School of Business _________E-Mail Addresses________
Barry University Bitnet: Blanco%bu4090@Barryu
Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 Internet: Blanco@bu4090.barry.edu
<<<<< ---------------- >>>>>
"Las naciones marchan hacia el termino de su grandeza, con
el mismo paso que camina su educacion." "The nations march
toward their greatness at the same pace as their educational
systems evolve." Simon Bolivar
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