The Well Educated Mind

Image Credit:The Graphics Fairy

I am a firm believer in continuing to educate yourself, whether it be through formal classes or by your own self-study program.  To that end, I have been reading several books that hopefully will aid in my own development, and assist me in the classroom.  One book that I am using to achieve this goal is The Well Educated Mind: A Guide to Classical Education You Never Had.  I thought this paragraph from Chapter 1 was interesting:

"'Some books are to be tasted,' wrote the sixteenth-century philosopher Francis Bacon, 'others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.'  Bacon, who had a knack for the quotable...was suggesting that not every book is worthy of serious attention.  But the three levels of understanding he describes--tasting, swallowing, and digesting--reflect his familiarity with classical education.  In the classical school, learning is a three-part process.  First, taste: Gain basic knowledge of your subject,.  Second, swallow: Take the knowledge into your own understanding by evaluating it.  Is it valid?  Is it true?  Why?  Third, digest: Fold the subject into your own understanding.  Let it change the way you think--or reject it as unworthy.  Taste, swallow, digest; find out the facts, evaluate them, form your own opinion."

Is this an unusual way to look at learning?  I'm still in the digesting phase.  What do you think of this idea of Taste, Swallow, and Digest?  Let us know, here at The Things You Can Read.

Happy Tasting, Swallowing, and Digesting!
Things You Can Read

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