Alchemy

I'm really interested in the subject of alchemy, especially as it relates to education. What's the connection--you might ask--between alchemy (the ancient practice of trying to turn base metals into gold) and education? Well, I've learned from past research that alchemy has often served historically as a controlling metaphor for discussing education as a process of transforming un- or under-developed human beings in hopes of turning them into something better, more "golden." This metaphor is strongly present in the work of Jan Amos Comenius, the 17th century teacher whose "Paradise of the Heart" story is central to the VQ Guidebook. Comenius, among others, viewed education as a modern scientific process rooted nonetheless in premodern traditions, like alchemy, that focused on transforming, refining, and adapting "raw materials" in order to make them more useful to society.

In this model, young students are the "raw material," or "base metals," in pursuit of refinement. The classroom or the school then serves as the specialized device or technology (in alchemical science this is called the "kerotakis") by which raw, unusable human beings can be effectively transformed into more valuable chunks of "gold."

In my CBook I've placed a URL to a website that's interesting in and of itself -- "The Alchemy Web Site." I'm not sure, but in the world of alchemy studies this might be as "refined" as it gets, but there are some incredible texts there, and for that it's a useful database.

The kerotakis drawings are also from that site.