Is learning "romantic"? That's a pretty novel idea.
How many students in college classes act as if learning is more like a marriage gone bad after 12 years?
Every class should be an opportunity to connect romance to the subject. It's sad to see students in classes with the sole desire to "pass," not learn.
And, perhaps the classroom isn't the ideal learning environment for all students. That's why we must seize upon ways to connect students to the material through alternative methods.
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"The Romance of Learning"--I like that title. The connection between "eros" and learning or knowledge, well-known to the Greeks, is something that needs to brought to the fore in any consideration of modern pedagogy.
Eros, whether regarding love for another or education, is an uncomfortable longing for completeness, for wholeness. Regarding education it is wonder, desire. Human beings, unlike other animals, have not fully developed at puberty--when eros is perhaps strongest. And that desire for learining need never cease.
Aristotle said somewhere that human beings have two peaks, both full of intense pleasure: sexual intercourse and learning. Let's try to make more "ah-ha" moments possible.
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