I really enjoyed our discussion today on Henry Adams, because it gave me a new way of reading the book. Maybe I was too overwhelmed by the metaphors and contrasts in the beginning, but now that I look back, a few parts were actually quite funny. For example, on page 27, Adams talks about how he thinks that only learning math, Spanish, German, and French is good enough for him to live through life. This is hilarious yet ridiculous, because I can't imagine how our lives would be if we only learned these four subjects.
Other than that, I find it really interesting how Adams takes "education" at a whole new level. Education to me has always been about going to shool and mainly learning from textbooks and research. Adams, however, seems to see education more as knowledge learned from life experience. For example, one of his first "lessons" in life was learning the color yellow from sitting on the kitchen floor in sunlight, and he "learns" about slavery by visitng a slave state (Washington). There, he physically sees acutal slavery and experiences what it's like to be in a world with slaves, and I personally think that learning like this is very effective.
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Amanda, I really like your point of view in the post. Henry Adams' book can be quite overwhelming and I am utterly confused after finishing the book. You touched on something scottie mentioned as well, and that the education he speaks of is not "book smarts" etc, it's about lessons learned through real life. I was thinking about that after I finished the book tonight, but I think it is interesting that you picked up on that from the beginning. I enjoyed the example you provide, where Adams thinks the only education he needs is foreign language. One can say that he was a fool because he didn't take advantage of his resources, especially while attending an Ivy leauge such as Harvard; however, I feel inclined to say he did just fine and proved that education is important but that with will and this "force" he speaks of, you can go far.
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