Category: Newsworthy

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Four Things I Learned about Learning

The spring semester is coming to an end, for me and millions of other students across the land. It’s been a whirlwind tour, especially this past April when I was writing several papers, blogging every day, preparing presentations, and watching a ton of lectures. A fire hose! but now that it’s done, that was so-o-o-o fun! Let’s do it again.

I wanted to reflect a little on education itself to share four things I have learned about learning, being an older person back in the classroom. There are a few simple but BIG ideas, which unfortunately get lost among the theories and battles going on in the education world. Let me comment on some of those impediments first, then list my four things.

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V is for Vikings

The Oseberg ship, a symbol of a different kind of trader. Wikipedia.

When you visualize “medieval traders of Persian textiles,” Vikings may not be the first thing that comes to mind.

Yet the Scandinavians were masterful travelers who, despite their reputation for looting, were also supreme world traders. They had access to their own products from the Silk Road and navigated their own pathways into the heart of the world exchange that took place on the central Asian steppes. As much as some would like to debunk the idea, you can’t argue when the evidence is dug up a Norwegian back yard.

Where the Bodies Were Buried

The Viking ship above, called a karve, was discovered near a farm in Southeastern Norway at the beginning of the 20th century. (Discovered near a farm … hmm … perhaps that means a plow hit an immovable object one fine Osebergian spring morn?) A Swedish archaeologist took charge of unearthing the site in 1904-05. While precious metal items were missing, they did find two female skeletons and a big stash of goods still remained.

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U is for Ulbricht

I was going to write about the Upanishads because I haven’t focused much on Indian culture, and they had a huge influence on Silk Road trading, goods, art, and ideas. But when I looked up Upanishads, I read that they were an ontological….and Schopenhauer Vedic brahman interconnected universe … and my eyes rolled back in my head.

So in lieu of discussing very important but abstract Indian spiritual philosophical concepts, let’s talk about pirates instead.

Technically, Ulbricht is Silk-Road-related. Not that 12th century Silk Road, though. This is the dark web Silk Road.

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