- Time -- and quantity. Ideally, for me, all classes would go very slowly. We would have time to savor and digest every reading, everyone could read at her own pace and still take happy part in the discussion -- and we wouldn't feel the need to move on until we felt we had completely satisfied ourselves with a reading or project.
- Authority. Also ideally, there would be no teacher and no class. The original home-schooling movement -- starting back in the 60s -- was a response to the numbing sameness and oppressiveness of elementary school classrooms. In his series of books meant to help parents figure out what to do if they made the decision to homeschool, John Holt describes how parents realized they could cover in 2 hours a day what a classroom would cover in 6; parents could also follow the lead of their children’s interests. I can't forget one description of a 9 year old child who got interested in plumbing and taught herself how to do it, to the extent that she replumbed her parents' whole house (learning along the way all the necessary math). I also remember how Tim Cahill (I think) in one of his travel books describes going to Timbuktu, at some point years ago when the infrastructure had fallen apart: the university was essentially shut down because no one was getting paid and so no one was coming in to teach -- but at a dry fountain there at the unviversity Cahill ran into a group of students who came together regularly on their own to hold a poetry class because they wanted to. In each of these cases, the authority about what and where and how fast to learn is in the hands of the learner.
So I place myself in a quandary: I am a teacher who wishes there to be no classes, either of students beholden to me in any way or of institutionally-delimited time. And as a learner, I like it best when I am, for example, in a reading group of friends where we meet regularly because we want to, we read as much as we can, and we do the reading because we've chosen it and it has use and interest for us.
As I read back over this, I see that I have -- sort of -- written myself into a corner: my use of "ideally" above implies a "but realistically..." retort. I could go off into a "But we are teaching and learning in delimited times blah blah blah and we have to give grades and there's academic-cultural expectations about what happens in classes and blah blah blah so forget the questions of time and authority."
Forget that.
I'd rather discuss with you all your take on these conditions. What would your ideal learning situation be -- both as a teacher and a student? In *your* classes, how do you decide what happens? When and how do you negotiate with people in your classes over these issues? (And do you negotiate at all?)
5 comments:
Thinking, indeed
I'll save the rest of this for a longer response, but we've been reading John Dewey's Democracy and Education for Marilyn Cooper's Pedagogy class--a fantastic pragmatist/socialist book that places so much emphasis on personal experience and the realization of the intrinsic value of education.
It's enough to stir that never-ending question of "how do I get my students to want to learn!?"
Time, Work, Learning
I understand your dilemma. Jim & I chose to homeschool the kids for similar reasons (and a frighteningly inadequate public school system back in Alliance, Ohio). The girls and I (or the girls and Jim) went through a typical first grade day in less than three hours. Second grade moved to 3-3 1/2. They start 3rd soon, and I expect it will take a little longer because we are adding Spanish lessons. Normally, Calvert kids don't start language until the 4th or 5th grade, but our girls are interested in language and culture. In fact, Bo really wants to learn Chinese (in part so she can talk to Miss Yang), and Zo wants to learn French and German (so she can talk to Miss Laurence and because Jim speaks German). Still, I decided to start them on Spanish because that is what I know. I've further agreed to add French and Chinese and German and Latin as I am able. Why? Because that is their interest, and that is what we try to follow.
So, how do we do that in 15 weeks in Revisions? I've tried to find things to study that complement the text and the goals while engaging their interests. Sometimes it works like a charm: other times, I fail. But like the starfish analogy, I can only do what I can do. Our class is no different. I think the work load stress comes from the idea that normally we would only be taking two classes and dummy credits, but we are all taking two classes plus this one. That makes for a heavier than usual work load. I have time to read, but others have more reading-intensive courses than I do. Getting to the TWITS will be a stretch, but I can make it, especially as a few class days off gives me time for homework. Incorporating the TWITS into my syllabus at this point will be the toughie for me, as I've already pretty much loaded the semester, but I'm open to seeing what I can do.
Seeing as there are so many of us in the course, each with a different set of needs and wants, this course must be heck to teach. I'd be curious to know if each of us is eying the texts with a particular chapter of interest. I know two or three of the topics sound exciting to me, while a few others are less so (although I welcome the different viewpoints). Perhaps we can collectively work on an approach to this problem.
And your thoughts, friends?
Hi Anne,
For this class, specifically, in approaching it as a practicum, what seems to be ideal is having the opportunity to have directed discussions about different aspects of teaching, from a practical standpoint. I find the classroom discussions extraordinarily useful and I've gotten some of my best teaching ideas from listening to you, Christy, Karen and my peers talk about approaches you've taken in your own classrooms.
Having said that, we don't always get what we want, particularly when we are students, and we don't always know better. That's why we're here to learn. That's why there does need to be authority in the classroom--I see the teacher as someone who facilitates learning and wields authority when necessary. As a teacher, I do negotiate to a certain extent with my students because I value their input, and more often than not, they have interesting suggestions. There does come a time, however, when negotiating is over and as the teacher/facilitator, I make the final decisions.
As a student, I always appreciate when I'm given that same opportunity to negotiate certain course demands. I like to feel that my ideas and concerns are being heard and that I have an active role in the learning process. There is a lot of responsibility in wanting that kind of role, but I think, particularly at the graduate level, we're well equipped to handle it. We're also, in a perfect world, well-equipped to respect authority if and when it is wielded.
I'm rambling.
Anne,
I have thought a lot about what you have written, and that is why it has taken so long for my reply. The purpose of 5931 is to make us better teachers, and unlike many in the class, I have no prior teaching experience, so perhaps I need more help than most.
Ideally, the 5931 class would be a safe place for us to come together to share our ideas about teaching and to discover ways to improve our teaching in the future. I think that 5931 is already that place.
I also think that we have a wonderful opportunity this semester in Marilyn Cooper's Pedagogy class. I am not in the class, but I think that 5931 is an excellent place for those that are to share what they are learning with the rest of us.
On the subject of authority...I think it is impossible to effectively learn and accomplish all the goals of a class without an authority figure in the room. There must be someone facilitating the class and steering it toward an end...whatever that may be.
As I continue to think on what authority means in the classroom, I think we must separate 5931 from other classes. Our job is to teach Revisions, and 5931 is our training for that job. I think that makes the authority figure in 5931 more than a teacher, but a supervisor as well.
Therefore, I think that while 5931 should be a safe place to discuss our ideas of what the class is and should be, we also must realize that 5931 has a broader purpose.
idealswelcome
How's that for a play on identity?
As far as ideal situation goes, I have to agree with Christy: I've not seen it yet. If I'm learning and doing no harm to others in the process that's pretty close ideologically, but I can't spell it out as a practice. The work load is very heavy in grad school and I don't think any of us expected otherwise, and I'm sure we'd all be disappointed if it were easy. I have noticed that no matter how much I think I'm not accomplishing, I'm always learning more than it seemed. The names and dates often escape my memory, but the principles, theories, concepts, etc. surely inform how I read new material. The biggest problem I have is I'm a slow starter. My MS chair pointed this out to me and being aware of it has helped me panic less when times get exceptionally difficult. It takes me about three pages of struggle just to get warmed up when I write. After that my thoughts connect and become more clear (it's just my process). That's why time constraints stress me out. I don't know if having all the time I needed would necessarily help because I might never work through those first three frustrating pages before moving on to the next book/chapter/article/project.
Do I negotiate? Absolutely! Why? Because I believe it's more important to learn the material than to beat the clock, and me and the students I'm charged with teaching are here to learn. When I've needed more time, my teachers have been great about negotiating and allowing more. When there's no more time to allow, it's been time to do the best with what I've got. Both approaches are valuable learning strategies and are another "one of those things" that as teachers we need to learn how to balance not only for ourselves but for our students as well who stand to benefit from our careful attention. We listen critically, plan purposefully, design rhetorically, and work hard to execute skillfully, and we do this as students and as teachers. As humans in a humanities department we understand each of these as being complex in ways our non-humanities colleagues may not have the opportunity to consider, and we do the best that we can under human rather than ideal conditions.
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