Landscapes of Learning

Michael Apple, a renowned educator that thinks outside the box. He has visited Laurier Brantford to give a lecture on the program called “Landscapes of Learning” and how to fix education. He refuses to be indifferent and insists to confront the pessimism of the intellect and attempts to move beyond abstract criticism.

Dr. Apple originates from Patterson, New Jersey; a city that today is the second largest Arabic speaking city in the U.S.A. Much of the money he makes from lectures and book profits is donated to social and religious movements that are towards democracy.

Apple points out that education is both political and even ethical. The act of teaching is a political act due to how we treat it and how have feminized it. At the same time he comments on important and unimportant knowledge. If they are to be compared, then important knowledge must be compared to unimportant knowledge in order to understand a simple concept.

Apple states that our vision of education is being transformed – revolutions can go backwards and forwards. Education is worsening due to the fact that everyday costs are going up and salaries are not improving coherently. “It is raining in education.” says Apple. He makes an interesting comment during his lecture. He says that more money is being spent on prisons than of all higher education combined.

Apple has a very philosophical approach to his teaching method as he says that we should not assume that we can teach the world, when the world can teach us.