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Everything I needed to know about learning, I learned from The Wild Bunch
Education and "The Wild Bunch'
In the course of my day job as an archivist, I came across an interesting academic hissy-fit between two very learned individuals over whether or not social sciences were really science or just gussied-up political opinions. This debate set me to pondering the entire notion of learning— how and why we learn. That was when it struck me that Sam Peckinpah's 1969 Western, The Wild Bunch, provides a perfect demonstration of this process.
If you've never seen it, the film's protagonists are six outlaws, circa 1913, who are rapidly losing ground to Modern Times. Of the six, one could have perhaps read a newspaper. It's doubtful whether the other five could, or would even want to.
While robbing a shipment of U.S. Army ordnance for a somewhat dicey Mexican general, these thugs come upon an unexpected "find"— a brand spanking new Maxim machine gun. By the next scene, every one of them— except for the one who prefers a sack of looted hand grenades— knows how to operate this fairly complex weapon, without benefit of instruction or reading through an ordinance manual.
Why is that? I believe it's because, as bank robbers, they can clearly perceive the benefits of such a tool in their line of work.
(In the film's opening scene, they are badly outgunned by a railroad posse and must beat a hasty retreat. But with a machine gun mounted on a wagon— well, that could change everything.)
Just as the boys in the bunch had earlier foresworn six-shooters for .45-automatics because seven shots fired off in rapid succession are better than six squeezed off one at a time, now they're ready to step up to a new level of technology— without any boss, professional association or ad campaign forcing them to.
The gang learns to operate a machine gun because they clearly see its benefits. What we find useful to us— be it solving quadratic equations or picking locks— we learn. Perhaps the great problem of education is that students simply don't want to purchase the products we are selling.♦
To read a response, click here.
If you've never seen it, the film's protagonists are six outlaws, circa 1913, who are rapidly losing ground to Modern Times. Of the six, one could have perhaps read a newspaper. It's doubtful whether the other five could, or would even want to.
While robbing a shipment of U.S. Army ordnance for a somewhat dicey Mexican general, these thugs come upon an unexpected "find"— a brand spanking new Maxim machine gun. By the next scene, every one of them— except for the one who prefers a sack of looted hand grenades— knows how to operate this fairly complex weapon, without benefit of instruction or reading through an ordinance manual.
Why is that? I believe it's because, as bank robbers, they can clearly perceive the benefits of such a tool in their line of work.
(In the film's opening scene, they are badly outgunned by a railroad posse and must beat a hasty retreat. But with a machine gun mounted on a wagon— well, that could change everything.)
Just as the boys in the bunch had earlier foresworn six-shooters for .45-automatics because seven shots fired off in rapid succession are better than six squeezed off one at a time, now they're ready to step up to a new level of technology— without any boss, professional association or ad campaign forcing them to.
The gang learns to operate a machine gun because they clearly see its benefits. What we find useful to us— be it solving quadratic equations or picking locks— we learn. Perhaps the great problem of education is that students simply don't want to purchase the products we are selling.♦
To read a response, click here.
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