I shared the insight from yesterday’s post with my students today…like whaddya know, they actually got it! Several of them were even one step ahead of me. After I layed out the author’s argument in the quote, I asked them what they thought about it. Several disagreed, saying that sometimes the author has a point and a main goal of the reader is to not only apply it to his life, but to find out what that point is.
One girl objected: “but when you’re asking ‘what does it mean *to me,* you can at least have a debate about all the different points of view.” I pointed out to her that debate isn’t even possible if what the author is saying is true: if we make meaning rather than discover it, critiquing and debating about points of view and interpretations makes about as much sense as debating what the right kind of ice cream flavor is. Only if we are trying to *correctly understand the author* (aka “discover” his point/meaning/intent) is correction, and therefore debate about accuracy, possible.
Now there’s some sharp tacks! It was encouraging to see.
