jacobmax
04-26-2005, 08:01 AM
So I'm writing a story about a poetry teacher and I will be teaching poetry this summer. I started wondering what the purpose of poetry was and this led me to the purpose of art, which led me after a short time to the purpose and meaning of life.
I realized after a while that this was the wrong question to ask. The right question is, under what conditions does life seem to lack meaning?
The answer is when our needs aren't met. The purpose of life is thus to meet our needs. What are our needs? Well, our needs change as we grow. The needs of an atom are relatively slight and easily met, and the same up to monkeys or so; only humans seem to have existential crises. Our needs grow progressively complicated, roughly following Maslow's hierarchy.
So all that we can do as humans, all activity, serves to fulfill our needs. When our needs are met at one developmental level, we are capable of growing into the next one. We develop into decreasing levels of egocentricity--greater and greater self-identification.
Any art that a person creates will be an expression of their needs and an attempt to meet them. The job of a true teacher of any subject is to promote the development of the student, using the field as the medium.
So a poetry teacher uses poetry to promote the development of his students by helping them write poetry that fulfills their needs. Alongside the 'what' of their writing, the content that will fulfill them, the teacher guides the students through the 'how'--the techniques and methods of poetry, in order to be the most effective. The more powerful the writing is, the more effective it is at fulfilling the needs of the artist, and likely, the needs of audience. As these needs are fulfilled, both the artist and the audience develop, eventually converging on god.
I imagine the same principle would apply to any subject. Teach history students how to be historians by beginning with their own history--the history that most likely corresponds to their needs and developmental level. Start with the science of the body--egocentric. Start with the math applicable to one's life, teach students to be mathematicians using the math that will fulfill them. And so on.
What do you think?
I realized after a while that this was the wrong question to ask. The right question is, under what conditions does life seem to lack meaning?
The answer is when our needs aren't met. The purpose of life is thus to meet our needs. What are our needs? Well, our needs change as we grow. The needs of an atom are relatively slight and easily met, and the same up to monkeys or so; only humans seem to have existential crises. Our needs grow progressively complicated, roughly following Maslow's hierarchy.
So all that we can do as humans, all activity, serves to fulfill our needs. When our needs are met at one developmental level, we are capable of growing into the next one. We develop into decreasing levels of egocentricity--greater and greater self-identification.
Any art that a person creates will be an expression of their needs and an attempt to meet them. The job of a true teacher of any subject is to promote the development of the student, using the field as the medium.
So a poetry teacher uses poetry to promote the development of his students by helping them write poetry that fulfills their needs. Alongside the 'what' of their writing, the content that will fulfill them, the teacher guides the students through the 'how'--the techniques and methods of poetry, in order to be the most effective. The more powerful the writing is, the more effective it is at fulfilling the needs of the artist, and likely, the needs of audience. As these needs are fulfilled, both the artist and the audience develop, eventually converging on god.
I imagine the same principle would apply to any subject. Teach history students how to be historians by beginning with their own history--the history that most likely corresponds to their needs and developmental level. Start with the science of the body--egocentric. Start with the math applicable to one's life, teach students to be mathematicians using the math that will fulfill them. And so on.
What do you think?