John Stilgoe, professor and visionary
58 (2):
36-37 (2004)issn 0032-8510.Abstract
In interview, the professor John Stilgoe, a lecturer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, discusses his views regarding visual literacy in young people. He asserts that the public secondary school educational system in the U.S.A. fails to impart to students a sense of visual awareness strong enough to engage with images they encounter. He considers the history of visual education at Harvard, and asserts that it was lacking and describes teaching students who are unaccustomed to analyzing visual information for long periods of time. He details a forthcoming book of his in which he analyzes the deficiencies of visual education, and prescribes improvements. He discusses the History of Landscape, his professorial title. He scrutinizes a given viewer's biases of perception, and concludes by affirming that the demands of global culture will necessitate change in educational practices.