Richard Fletcher on Leap Before You Look

Richard Fletcher, associate professor in Ohio State’s Department of Classics, will discuss the idea of dialogue and its role in the history of Black Mountain College. As the college’s founder and first rector, and in his introductory class on Plato, classicist John Andrew Rice implemented John Dewey’s educational philosophy through the ancient form of the Socratic dialogue. This talk will explore how this specific concept of dialogue expanded and developed at Black Mountain, not only through the fundamental interactions among the arts and between teachers and students, but also as part of Charles Olson’s poetry, method of collage, in his teaching, and through his role as rector from 1951 to 1956.