Signum Academy and the idea of online ed: open letter to Jordan Peterson

Seeing their call for preceptors in the summer of 2015 brought me back in touch with Professor Olsen at Signum University, and I was astonished at all the work he'd done there since he'd turned to it full-time. Without a PhD I'm not likely to get a chance to teach at that level, though since then I've spent some time working on an analogue to graduate-level courses for the young people I do get to teach. Such as it is: Signum Academy on Outschool. Perhaps I could do a lot more if I were to turn to this full-time, but I think I'd miss teaching, and a steady paycheck doesn't hurt, either, but who knows, it could grow to that point, or I could be driven to it by some other avenue. I'm still not clear how much was pull, how much push, in Professor Olsen's decision.

Having the imprimatur of the illustrious Alexander Schmid, then, I got onto another, Canadian longitude of the online ed world: the Jordan B. Peterson podcast. Fascinating!

Here is what I had to say after listening to about 30 podcasts:

Dear Dr Peterson:

A friend from St John's College put me onto your podcast, and I think it's tremendous. Thanks for bringing fresh attention to the value of reading great books! In a few of your talks you mention Tolkien, and elsewhere you discuss plans for an online university, so I thought you might like to check out Signum University, if you haven't already. It's the project of Corey Olsen, aka The Tolkien Professor, and I think the two of you might have a lot in common! One other refrain of yours is your interest in the connection between Marx and the postmodernists. I think it might be interesting to trace Marx's ideas backward in history, too, though: he was deeply influenced by Hegel and Feuerbach, of course, and the latter's ideas in The Essence of Christianity (translated by George Eliot, of all people!) seem to me very much in line with some of your own about reading the Bible in a psychological light. Lastly, as an admirer of Milton, you might be interested in Philip Pullman's works. His stories first introduced me to great books, and his essays and speeches on writing and culture rival your own! I share these with you by way of thanks for your recommendations to read and reread Jung, Solzhenitsyn, et al. Hoping they bring you encouragement and renewed insight,

Regards,

Wesley

Then just today I read in an email nanowrimo sent me that they suggest this reThinking ELA site, constituting a near-opposite pole to the great books I've been reading and their proponents I've been listening to. Which really speaks for itself, I think, so give that a listen, too.