Ok, I’ll go first.
As you surely noticed from the CAST schedule for our local FDW sessions, I’m involved in two sessions. The first, on Friday at 11am is our third annual Great Books discussion, co-hosted with Kamran Swanson. We’ll discuss Immanuel Kant’s “What Is Enlightenment?” which he wrote for a German newspaper that had posed the question.
It’s an opportunity to be a thinker, a reader, a talker, and a listener about rich, challenging, and relevant ideas that have influenced thinkers for hundreds of years and might just fertilize your own thinking about your students, your teaching and the world!
Even if you don’t read it, you can Google a synposis and read that. Or, just come and listen and contribute what you can. There will not be a test, but it will be educational and interesting. It always is.
THEN, after lunch–also on Friday–, I’ll be sitting on a panel with a bunch of super-cool people all back from sabbaticals talking (briefly) about what we did and what it was like (short version: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED; DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!).
And then after that, we’ll adjourn to the Emerald from 4 to 6 (at least) to continue the discussion and open up digressions and meet and greet (if you know you’re going, email Social Committee Chair, Rachel Iannantuoni (riannantuoni@ccc.edu) to let her know. And if you don’t RSVP, show up anyway!
And if you have a session planned (or a friend with a session planned) hype it up in the comments.
The Harold Lounge 
I don’t want to give anyone the impression that we’re doing a precise scholarly reading of this piece, because I think Dave and I want the conversation to be fluid, fun, and engaging, but I’ve always found the following point too interesting not to mention:
The translation Dave linked to begins with the quote,
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another…”
Another translation replaces “immaturity” with “tutelage:”
“Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another.”
The term is used repeatedly throughout the text. I’ve always felt the “tutelage” translation delivers Kant’s message more crisply. It’s not mere immaturity that prohibits our growth, but a certain take on our “education,” and what we think of that. Then again, I don’t know German and I’m at the mercy of the translators’ authority. If you DO know German, the original term is “Unmündigkeit.” Some searches on translation sites reveal the word can be translated both as “infancy” or “tutelage.”
For those of you who are capable of shedding the light of your own understanding on the text, you can read the German version here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30821/30821-h/30821-h.htm