Some Observations on "The Death of the Editor and Printer" Six Years Later

1)  It did not all work--extra credit is not enough inducement to cause many Goucher students to commit to unfamiliar tasks/instruction (like Royal Navy seamen and cats, "they like what they know").  Students who did try it often signed up for 241/341, so it was worth it.

2)  The simplest lessons are often most important and require the most patient, repeated instruction: "Slow down"; "Be patient with your mind and eyes"; "Don't expect discoveries to be obvious"; "Tolerate mystery (and frustration) as a precondition to discovery" (dancers, natural sciences and philosophy students are great at this).

3)  Hands-on "haptic" learning is still our most powerful educational tool.  Digital surrogates, though convenient and flashy, are the instruments of Satan (i.e., the Internet).

4)  Reading is different from and competes for cognitive function with seeing.

5)  Interdisciplinary collaboration to use rare books and archival materials in colleagues' courses is exciting, disappointing, confusing, demanding.  E.g., French 257, Monsters and the Monstrous.  Biology 107: Historical Nutrition Laboratory Using C19 Manuscript and Print Cookbooks  Some other one-off collaborative classes in English and Visual and Material Culture (viz., Art History)