By: Michelle Curtis

Michelle Curtis — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:40:33 +0000

I enjoyed your thoughts on Schotte’s book, especially how you tied current navigational topics in with her points regarding the pedagogy of navigation. Although its subject is far from my main interest, I found Sailing School interesting. Schotte’s examination of how navigation was taught in countries with a reputation for maritime cultures was fascinating. I especially enjoyed her treatment of the Netherlands and England. England’s inventive tiered system was a highlight, and the famous names that contributed to the curriculum were at first surprising; after further thought, their participation made total sense. The academic disagreements regarding the content of the curriculum, to the detriment of the students, were expected but disappointing. My only criticism of Schotte’s work is that I would have liked to have seen how prepared students were when they left these early navigation lessons to navigate the open ocean.

By: Alexa Shipes

Alexa Shipes — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 14:37:49 +0000

I really liked your insights. Having been to the building where the Casa de la Contratacion’s records are held (the Archive of the Indies in Seville), the prologue felt more real. I could easily connect the classes navigators took back in the sixteenth century to modern-day undergraduate classes, especially due to the format in which they took place. These classes were based more on discussion of new ideas, which (I assume) was atypical for the time period. Most universities of the time still had curricula based on the medieval trivium and quadrivium, which did not exactly allow for the acceptance of new ideas. I was especially struck by how navigational exams led to the creation of standardized testing in other fields, even after the navigational exams were rendered semi-obsolete by the introduction of radar in the 1940s. What, then, could explain the persistence of the old-style system of standardized testing well into the era of GPS and Google Maps? Perhaps another case study would suffice: in 1970, NASA launched Apollo 13, which was intended to land on the Moon after the heralded success of Apollo 11. For superstitious members of the public, this mission was doomed to fail because it was launched on Friday the 13th. The commander of the mission, Jim Lovell, had to use navigational skills dating back to the Age of Discovery to get himself and his fellow crewmembers back to Earth safely, as landing on the Moon was out of the question.

Comments on: Margaret Schotte’s “Sailing School”

By: Michelle Curtis

By: Alexa Shipes