Friday's response

David Bartholomae's quote "invent the university" means that you apply the terminology and presentation skills that you learned in the university, into new ways of thinking in your everyday life in order for you to get to you where you want to go in life. This is hard for me because in my department of studies, (excluding entrepreneurship) you "learn" more than you "invent". Even though you learn new material like "Business Angel" and "Boolean" the exams that are given to you by the professors don't like being creative and prefer having the "right" statement due to their discourse community.

The student is inventing a new way how to perceive clay. In the students case he transformed the general geographic model of earth into the amplified geographic model of earth by specifically studying the whole area of the earth. David Bartholomae taught us that you do not have to be "God" to come up with something new, you just have to rethink the question and support it with new material that you have learned. In my concurrence on this issue, I have a better understanding of my education by challenging my "wrong" answer and explaining why its right by "inventing" like what the student did, as opposed to "learning" like what the average basic professor politely snubbing you based upon what the "book" said.

The reason why he uses the word "invent," rather than "learn" is because he is taking the readers to another level in the College education field. I understand from what David Bartholomae saying in general is that anyone can "learn", but only the true geniuses in the world know how to take what they have "learned" and "invent" something new. Historically the people who "invent" are honored and remembered academically not by their own knowledge, but by how their "inventions" affected and helped the societies way of thinking and operating. Historically we call these people "inventors", but today we refer to these people something else which are "entreprenuers". You don't need to be in business to rethink your new ideas, you can also be in law as well. The reason why so many cases and laws are changed is because of how people percieve the law for that case and test the constitution to see if its qualified to really be a law by "inventing" rather than abiding by them like "learning".

In my project I plan to "invent" from the materials of Wikipedia, a new page for Edward Jones Company as opposed to supporting and "learn" from the materials on Wikipedia existing page. I feel that this is beneficial to me because someday I want to start my own business with a help of some loan officers so that I can truely be a honorable employer, as opposed to average employee in the business world. I feel that the more that I do and complete projects by myself the better off I will be in the long run because it will teach me the discipline of handling personal situations when they arise.

Response for Friday: Inventing the University

What does it mean, as Bartholomae says, to "invent the university"? Why does he use the word "invent," rather than "learn"? What, exactly, is the student inventing?

--ejfleitz