Colloquium - The Missing Key to Our Education

"But the last pare drops."

Molly instantly exacted particulars.

"The soldier should not have told the general he was killed," stated the cow-puncher.

"What should he have told him, I'd like to know?" said Molly.

"Why, just nothing. If the soldier could ride out of the battle all shot up, and tell his general about their takin' the town — that was being gritty, yu' see. But that truck at the finish —please say it again?"

So Molly read: — " 'You're wounded!' 'Nay,' the soldier's pride Touched to the quick, he said, 'I'm killed, sire!' And, his chief beside, Smiling, the boy fell dead."

"'Nay, I'm killed, sire,'" drawled the Virginian, amiably; for (symptom of convalescence) his freakish irony was revived in him. "Now a man who was man enough to act like he did, yu' see, would fall dead without mentioning it."

None of Molly's sweet girl friends had ever thus challenged Mr. Browning. They had been wont to cluster over him with a joyous awe that deepened proportionally with their misunderstanding. Molly paused to consider this novelty of view about the soldier.

"He was a Frenchman, you know," she said, under inspiration.

"A Frenchman," murmured the grave cow-puncher. "I never knowed a Frenchman, but I reckon they might perform that class of foolish?"

"But why was it foolish?" she cried. "His soldier's pride—don't you see?

"No." Molly now burst into a luxury of discussion. She leaned toward her cow-puncher with bright eyes searching his; with elbow on knee and hand propping chin, her lap became a slant, and from it Browning the poet slid and toppled, and lay unrescued. For the slow cow-puncher unfolded his notions of masculine courage and modesty (though he did not deal in such high-sounding names), and Molly forgot everything to listen to him, as he forgot himself and his inveterate shyness and grew talkative to her. "I would never have supposed that!" she would exclaim as she heard him; or, presently again, "I never had such an idea!" And her mind opened with delight to these new things which come from the man's mind so simple and direct.
—The Virginian, p551-2, by Owen Wister

For three hundred years this was the norm of our societies learning. Colloquium as it was called.
col·lo·qui·um (kə-lō'kwē-əm)

1. An informal meeting for the exchange of views.
2. An academic seminar on a broad field of study, usually led by a different lecturer at each meeting.

To be prepared for the 21st century this style of learning must return. I've really enjoyed, as of late, the opportunity to experience colloquium from the sidelines.

Assignment
Visit this link at George Whyth University and experience a colloquium for yourself. I'm betting you will enjoy it as much as I have.