Reaction to Class on 1/26

An important theme of class on Wednesday was teaching students to "see" -- showing them that they can come to an understanding of the world on their own terms. But as much as observation and understanding are important, the next logical step is to make some sort of argument or take a stance on your observation. I think this fits into Searle's idea that knowledge is two-fold: one element is information, the other is judgment. To use my own example from class:
Observation/Information: The pedestrian crossing in the street is not well-marked.
Judgment: This is bad because people could get hit by a car. Therefore, the crosswalk should be well-marked.
Writing functions as a vessel for that judgment. So that's what we teach -- the formulations of judgments throuhg writing. How do you say something interesting about an obsevation or a piece of information? To extend a metaphor from Brittany's quote: "You make broccoli interesting if you say it's better than cauliflower," I think a lot of people think that they are making broccoli interesting by discussing its relationship to cauliflower (vegetable cousins, no?) or by just plain saying that they don't like it. But setting up a contrast to something in its same category ("Chocolate is better than broccoli" isn't very interesting), and then making a value judgment IS interesting. Our job is to teach students how to make those distinctions and value judgments in intelligent and interesting ways.