Total Learning: The French Revolution

Title: The French Revolution

Date: 1789-1799

Nationality: France

Creator: French Revolutionaries

Medium: Ideas, Words, and Violence

“Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions.  When they are over, this fact is recognized—that the human race has been treated harshly, but that it has progressed.” 

–Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

The French revolution and the quotation referring to it by Victor Hugo are included as artifacts to demonstrate that learning is not an abstraction.  The French revolution, every aspect of it, was one constant application of the principles of learning.  Discernment of the horrid living conditions of the poor, the judging and reevaluation of circumstances at home and abroad, the synthesis of ideas fomenting in the minds of the people, the expression in violent revolution—all of these are just small pieces of the ever-weaving tapestry of learning manifesting itself in the world.   Learning is not confined to schools and papers and intellectual debates between scholars and philosophers—it happens everywhere at once in every person and society.  It is a messy process that can be brutal and terrifying in the same moment that it is beautiful and joyous.  The reality of learning must impinge itself on the mind of every person, lest we learn things we do not expect, without knowing it, leading us to paths we otherwise wouldn't tread.

Images taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Leading_the_People