Theory

Much of your early education consists of being exposed to new facts, and learning how to recall, categorize, and associate them.

Facts are important, but they are just one part of the intellectual life. In a world in which Google and Wikipedia can instantly call up more facts than our ancestors might have ever encountered in a year of reading (and more partial truths and outright lies as well), facts are so plentiful that the accumulation of data becomes a parlor trick. A good Googler might become skilled at quoting statistics in order to win arguments, but that won't really advance the creation of new ideas

• Facts join to form concepts.
  Our brains consumes oxygen and burns calories when they think. That's why we get headaches when we struggle to understand a new concept. Building concepts is challenging mental work, but like any skill, it comes more easily with practice.
  

• Concepts join to form a way of seeing -- a lens, through which we may view the world.
  Glass is mostly sand, but you can't just pick up a random handful of sand and call it a lens. Making and grinding glass takes specialized knowledge and tools, as well as time and practice.
  
  
• Theory is a way of categorizing and understanding the effect of such lenses.

A theory class invites you to try on different lenses, in order to observe what each world view reveals and conceals.