Giving Artifacts a Voice

Past and present discussions on education all too frequently neglect the role that silence plays in learning. In this article I set out to demonstrate that silence is the very foundation of learning. My claim is that we must find ways of freeing silence in our pedagogical practices so that our discourse does not denigrate into mere empty words, but becomes a means towards self-knowledge. My position is that no discourse can awaken self-knowledge; what it can do, at best, is to help create an inner state of silence necessary for mental, moral, and spiritual growth of the human self. The essay is a defense of Socratic learning, complemented with the poetic discourse of Max Picard. Such a marriage alone can render education creative, most especially when it is applied to reading and writing.