well, if I may, I'd like to jump back in here and refocus my thinking by looking at some of the commentary:

regarding the magisterium: I mentioned that it was a "loaded" term. well, besides the (unwanted) RC connotations of the "teaching" sense that I wanted, and the possible conflation with majesty; the other sense of the word is from Alchemy: the philosopher's stone. I'm still thinking about how that could be applied.

once again *we are dominating the discussion. where are the new guys* to tell us what they think? are we just kidding ourselves with a lot of logorrhea?

that was absolutely brilliant...

oh dear. (must be temperate..) not for nothing was that post signed rousseau.fr, I'd say. think "Social Contract".. think French Revolution.. read Locke also.. take two political discussion boards and call us in the morning.

chris, I guess I'm thinking of rational discussion, and disagreement, to be part of teaching -- perhaps we'd be better served to recast this "ideal" in terms of learning, but that term is being so overused currently in the business world; a person can't even get training any more!

*used generically -- it sounds friendlier to me than newbies. if you have an issue with my use of it in a genderless fashion, please take it to miscellany. {aside to musick: note differentiation in placement of *s in the above }

p.s. - thanks everyone of you for your contributions