Educational Implications for Heideggers Views On Poetry...

Educational Implications for Heideggers Views On Poetry And Thinking ABSTRACT: I discuss some of the educational implications emerging from Heideggers views on poetry, thinking, and language. Specifically, Heideggers views on the neighborhood between poetry and thinking suggest that most accepted methods of teaching poetry are in error, because they ignore this neighboring relation. The importance of this relation is presented and clarified. I then discuss the implications of Heideggers view for teaching poetry. Heideggers series of three lectures, later published as The Nature of Language has some very significant implications for education. (1) In this paper I focus on the second lecture. In opening his second lecture,†¦show more content†¦Thinking about language means entering a region where method does not reign. It means following a specific path in that region. But in thinking about the nature of language we encounter specific problems. When we speak of the nature of language, we are already using language to discuss its nature. Further more, we are already acquainted with the nature of language as people who use it, even if we cannot clearly articulate and define this nature. In short, we are entangled in a lagging behind the topic of our inquiry. There is a way out of our predicament. If we look around the region of thought, without taking the entanglement lightly, we will note that what Heidegger calls the country of thinking is open in all directions to the neighborhood of poetry. Thus, today, when scientific method tends to suffocate thinking, we can return to thinking through reading and listening to poetry. To be specific, the fact that the country of thinking is open in all directions to the neighborhood of poetry, can often help a person follow those paths of thinking that concern him or her. How? Quite often if you read and listen to great poetry -- with an openness to the language and to the thoughts and experiences expressed in the poem, and with a comportment to think about what you heard, with care for the world, and