The Devil teaches
No episode of the X Files is a surface text; each, in its own right, contains multiple meanings. What a particular viewer takes away from any given episode largely depends on what that viewer brings to the text. It is possible, for instance, that there is a viewer out there somewhere who actually enjoyed 'Teso dos Bichos' - maybe an Ecuadorean-American who enjoyed the great Imperialist having to give in to the voice of the indigenous people and return the Amaru, or a common-or-garden new ager who likes the idea of the Shaman overcoming the modern world's lack of belief in a spirit world.
So, 'Die hand die verletzt' can be read as a text dealing with the scandal of repressed memories and Satanic Ritual Abuse - and, as the Devil makes a personal appearance, in the form of Ms. Paddock, there's probably at least a couple of conclusions that can be come to depending on the viewer's opinions of SRA. It is with this aspect of the show that I have dealt with previously.
Since the writing of that previous blog, I have been contemplating the Devil's appearance as a teacher and what this might have to say. As a teacher, I'm biased in favor of education and cannot help but wonder why the show depicted the Devil as an educationalist.
Obviously, this is precisely what the Devil is, in a sense. Though I would say, the Devil is a liberal educationalist, willing to give whatever to learner desires - read Christopher Marlowe's 'Dr. Faustus' or Goethe's 'Faust' if in doubt. Of course in saying that, I've just revealed another bias.
I have a preference for that form of education that places the teacher in a position as the holder of knowledge which is to be freely dispensed to those who would learn. I base this approach to education on the likes of Socrates and Obi wan Kenobi. It is an approach to education that even that most liberal of institutions - Hollywood - adheres to. How many movies can you think of in which the brash, hotheaded and young novice rebels against the more experienced, knowledgeable and older instructor only to learn by experience that the teacher was right all along? And look what happened to Anakin when he didn't!
So why is the Devil a teacher in Die Hand Die Verletzt?
Who is a more appropriate teacher of hubris than the Devil?
We live at a time in history when the individual has the right to say that no one's opinion is any better than one's own. The teacher is divested of the role of fount of all knowledge and students should participate in their own learning.
Because 'traditional' education is seen as placing the learner in a position of inferiority to the superiority of the teacher, positioning the younger in a position of dependence on the elder, it is perceived as an infringement upon individuality. We choose to forget that individuality is not a right but something to be learned. The old rules that once kept our behaviour in check no longer apply, but individuality remains a matter of who we are as a person and not concerned at all with who we choose to have sex with.
Choice dictates our reality and so young people should be allowed to dictate what they learn at the pace they choose. Otherwise, education is Hell!
In actual fact, young people have always had this freedom. It simply isn't possible to teach one who has no inclination to learn.
School bored me and, consequently, I learned very little in the classroom.
Two experiences:
School can be Hell! Education never!
Education is always - and always has been - the choice of the learner.
That teacher in seminary taught what he knew with no thought to his student's ability to learn. But after that lesson I went away and taught myself about 'existentialism' He only partly failed. He failed in not teaching me , but he taught me the term that I was able to investigate under my own auspices.
As a teacher, I strive mightily to avoid a repetition of these two learning experiences. Never ridicule those who choose not to learn or have no aptitude for my subject and never teach to my own level.
Education is Hell when the teacher is the Emperor rather than Obi wan Kenobi.
So, 'Die hand die verletzt' can be read as a text dealing with the scandal of repressed memories and Satanic Ritual Abuse - and, as the Devil makes a personal appearance, in the form of Ms. Paddock, there's probably at least a couple of conclusions that can be come to depending on the viewer's opinions of SRA. It is with this aspect of the show that I have dealt with previously.
Since the writing of that previous blog, I have been contemplating the Devil's appearance as a teacher and what this might have to say. As a teacher, I'm biased in favor of education and cannot help but wonder why the show depicted the Devil as an educationalist.
Obviously, this is precisely what the Devil is, in a sense. Though I would say, the Devil is a liberal educationalist, willing to give whatever to learner desires - read Christopher Marlowe's 'Dr. Faustus' or Goethe's 'Faust' if in doubt. Of course in saying that, I've just revealed another bias.
I have a preference for that form of education that places the teacher in a position as the holder of knowledge which is to be freely dispensed to those who would learn. I base this approach to education on the likes of Socrates and Obi wan Kenobi. It is an approach to education that even that most liberal of institutions - Hollywood - adheres to. How many movies can you think of in which the brash, hotheaded and young novice rebels against the more experienced, knowledgeable and older instructor only to learn by experience that the teacher was right all along? And look what happened to Anakin when he didn't!
So why is the Devil a teacher in Die Hand Die Verletzt?
Who is a more appropriate teacher of hubris than the Devil?
We live at a time in history when the individual has the right to say that no one's opinion is any better than one's own. The teacher is divested of the role of fount of all knowledge and students should participate in their own learning.
Because 'traditional' education is seen as placing the learner in a position of inferiority to the superiority of the teacher, positioning the younger in a position of dependence on the elder, it is perceived as an infringement upon individuality. We choose to forget that individuality is not a right but something to be learned. The old rules that once kept our behaviour in check no longer apply, but individuality remains a matter of who we are as a person and not concerned at all with who we choose to have sex with.
Choice dictates our reality and so young people should be allowed to dictate what they learn at the pace they choose. Otherwise, education is Hell!
In actual fact, young people have always had this freedom. It simply isn't possible to teach one who has no inclination to learn.
School bored me and, consequently, I learned very little in the classroom.
Two experiences:
- High School: I forget the circumstances but will never forget the teacher's response, "Why are you not as intelligent as your brother?"
- Seminary: reading William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' the teacher mentioned 'existentialism'. I asked him what 'existentialism' was and he spent the rest of the lesson explaining. At the end of his explanation he asked if we had any questions. So, not having understood a word he'd said, I put up my hand and asked, "What is existentialism?" Not only the teacher but the rest of the class rebuked me.
School can be Hell! Education never!
Education is always - and always has been - the choice of the learner.
That teacher in seminary taught what he knew with no thought to his student's ability to learn. But after that lesson I went away and taught myself about 'existentialism' He only partly failed. He failed in not teaching me , but he taught me the term that I was able to investigate under my own auspices.
As a teacher, I strive mightily to avoid a repetition of these two learning experiences. Never ridicule those who choose not to learn or have no aptitude for my subject and never teach to my own level.
Education is Hell when the teacher is the Emperor rather than Obi wan Kenobi.
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