Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository
Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository
following the rules” in the time since, and that thing I had for so very long looked upon, when done for “me” rather than for a grade, as something I did simply to escape from the world – as being the tool of, taking a still-favorite saying of mine from Freire’s The Politics of Educaiton, “becoming, in order to be” (137) was something that, to put it simply, blew my mind. And with these treaties from Cixous and Lessing and Freire and others – reading them, writing about them, talking about them – “uncertainty,” its potential and even its revolutionary promise, was laid bare for me that semester in the course. I took those philosophies about writing and thinking and thinking about writing that were introduced to me in that semester and they opened my eyes and inspired me, as they still do today. It was an unforgettable semester that Fall in this class and, when it was done, I had not only been converted to the Mysteries of “Uncertainty” but prepared to spread its gospel out in the world, striding to “Write with Uncertainty” instead of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” As I said, it was the very next term that I wrote my Master’s thesis, “To Write with Wonder,” with this professor as its second reader actually. Looking back at thesis now, I am proud of what I accomplished with it and I do feel there is a lot “good” there. It was impassioned and engrossed and curious and hopeful. However, it was also, in too many ways, naïve and, ironically, too, too certain about 20
“uncertainty.” But when it was finished and validated with the signatures of my committee, I had my M. A. But months later, I was beginning my first year as a Ph.D. student in English at SUNY-Stony Brook. When asked the focus of my studies, my “specialty,” I was happy to declare myself a “compositionist,” identifying myself as a part of the field as if a member of some riotous counter-culture punk rock band like the MC5 or Discharge or Rage Against the Machine. I was happy to expound my philosophy of “Uncertainty” and insinuate it whenever and wherever I could, possibly obnoxiously so. After leaving Montclair State and starting my doctoral work at SUNY-Stony Brook, it was my fierce belief that the pursuit of uncertainty and conflict in writing leads to the fostering of inquiry and critical thought. While I had yet to really understand how this uncertainty and conflict were roused, how they were “operationalized,” outside of theoretical discussions and within actual academic contexts, settings of real-world education, there was very little doubt about their potential to further and to deepen thinking and writing. It was around this same time that I was introduced to the now-prominent research study conducted by William Perry at Harvard, begun in 1953 and finally published in 1968, under the title Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme, which seemed to “prove” my convictions. 21
- Page 1 and 2: Stony Brook University The official
- Page 3 and 4: Copyright by Leon Marcelo 2011 ii
- Page 5 and 6: Abstract of the Dissertation The Un
- Page 7 and 8: I dedicate this work to my daughter
- Page 9 and 10: Introduction This work is the culmi
- Page 11 and 12: But the way out of this philosophic
- Page 13 and 14: through experiences in the writing
- Page 15 and 16: the same old thing all over again.
- Page 17 and 18: theory and research permeating thro
- Page 19 and 20: I. With no reservations, I call mys
- Page 21 and 22: fill in all of the empty variables.
- Page 23 and 24: now have my doubts, which is what b
- Page 25 and 26: the invisible, hearing the inaudibl
- Page 27: “problem-posing education”: a
- Page 31 and 32: After the study was finished, Perry
- Page 33 and 34: a vehement belief in “writing wit
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- Page 37 and 38: until sometime later - after confro
- Page 39 and 40: eginnings of humanity itself. In th
- Page 41 and 42: conversation and, in its place, pag
- Page 43 and 44: [W]hat happened to rhetoric in Amer
- Page 45 and 46: cannot be discussed because they ar
- Page 47 and 48: States of America in the 1800s for
- Page 49 and 50: making and doing” (6). And for De
- Page 51 and 52: “Allegory of the Cave.” It took
- Page 53 and 54: not a denigration of Christianity,
- Page 55 and 56: severe, black or white: either foll
- Page 57 and 58: easoning behind those words. Early
- Page 59 and 60: transcendent reality and thus satis
- Page 61 and 62: imaginative novelty and creative tr
- Page 63 and 64: eality that the faithful were allow
- Page 65 and 66: with which all other societies were
- Page 67 and 68: field of composition was not, as Co
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- Page 73 and 74: This power of modern Western scienc
- Page 75 and 76: under the aegis of Western medicine
- Page 77 and 78: the masters of nature ... Instead o
“uncertainty.” But when it was finished and validated with the<br />
signatures of my committee, I had my M. A. But months later, I<br />
was beginning my first year as a Ph.D. student in English at<br />
<strong>SUNY</strong>-<strong>Stony</strong> <strong>Brook</strong>. When asked the focus of my studies, my<br />
“specialty,” I was happy to declare myself a “compositionist,”<br />
identifying myself as a part of the field as if a member of some<br />
riotous counter-culture punk rock band like the MC5 or Discharge<br />
or Rage Against the Machine. I was happy to expound my<br />
philosophy of “Uncertainty” and insinuate it whenever and<br />
wherever I could, possibly obnoxiously so.<br />
After leaving Montclair State and starting my doctoral work<br />
at <strong>SUNY</strong>-<strong>Stony</strong> <strong>Brook</strong>, it was my fierce belief that the pursuit of<br />
uncertainty and conflict in writing leads to the fostering of<br />
inquiry and critical thought. While I had yet to really<br />
understand how this uncertainty and conflict were roused, how<br />
they were “operationalized,” outside of theoretical discussions<br />
and within actual academic contexts, settings of real-world<br />
education, there was very little doubt about their potential to<br />
further and to deepen thinking and writing.<br />
It was around this same time that I was introduced to the<br />
now-prominent research study conducted by William Perry at<br />
Harvard, begun in 1953 and finally published in 1968, under the<br />
title Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the<br />
College Years: A Scheme, which seemed to “prove” my convictions.<br />
21
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