A part of the Academic Tradition

The great academic tradition begins 2700 years ago. A teacher begins with an idea, the student expounds on and expands that idea, and passes it on to yet another student. So we start with Corax, who teaches Tisias, who may have taught Isocrates, a contemporary of Socrates, who teaches Plato about reaching the truth, who teaches his ideal of Truth to Aristotle, who strikes the balance between lofty Truth and inherent truth. It's astounding and intimidating, this chain of knowledge and evolution. These giants of academia and scholarship seem to tower over what we know as education and cast a mighty shadow. It seems impossible to reach the heights they achieved in philosophy and thought. And yet, it's all there for us. Their work is available at every public library and every Barnes and Noble. We can know what they knew.

But I can read every work ever written by (or transcribed for) them and never be them. This world is so different, it's demands and distractions so much greater. The majority of us can never dedicate our lives to scholarship as they seem to have done. So what can we do with this knowledge? Aristotle wasn't working off of original thought. He expanded on what his teachers before him had already built. And that's what we as student's are expected to do. But there is a great distinction, in what I've observed, between education and scholarship. I never noticed the difference in undergrad, but perhaps I might have at a more prestigious school. In simple terms: Education seems to mean learning facts and figures, but also less tangible ideas, and seeking to make sense of them by means of critical analysis. Scholarship, however, seems to require the application of such knowledge to the world around you for purposes of imposing change upon it. This is my definition only, of course. An increasingly larger percentage of the population are educated. But are there more scholars? And can you become a scholar if you don't attend a prestigious university or college?

I have great respect for what I perceive to be, and am still understanding to be, the scholarly tradition. But I don't know that I yet feel a part of it. I feel kinship to Aristotle and Plato and Isocrates only in seeking to learn. But as a 21st century American, having grown up on the A-Team and the Real World and then being nurtured by Friends and American Idol, I don't know if I believe in my ability to truly take the information I've been given and perceive from it some application that will shed light on and alter some aspect of our society.

I'm eager to tackle the Rhetorical Family Tree project for this reason. The idea that present day scholars share the kind of connection shared by the Giants gives me hope that I might one day be invited in to this private club. Or that I might fight my way in to it regardless.

And gives me hope that I will one day become yet another teacher of bright minds in this long chain, this rich tradition.