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Copyright © 1997, Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 10:23:47 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Random Thought: "'S'ence" of Learning in
Community
We teachers
use all kinds of "tricks" to get students to do
the things they have to do to jump through the academic
hoops. But, the trick is not merely to be a trickster who
gets students merely to do those things without apparent
reason or to forces them to do things without explanation
or even threatens them with tests and grades to do
things. The real trick is to instil in them a desire to
come to class and to engage in their own learning. Of course, as my
good friend, Rick Garlikov rightly observes, the subject
matter is so often taught--presented or transmitted are
better words-- in rather narrow, deadening, parroting,
uninspiring ways that make it tiresome and/or difficult
for most students to learn in any interesting, exciting,
meaningful or desirable way. We talk a good talk of the
"wonderous world of learning" as we lead
students down the forbidding levels of Dante's inferno.
Most students hate a subject because previous teachers
have sucked the life and meaning out of it leaving behind
a dead cadaver of meaningless facts whose sole importance
is to be memorized for a test or written up for a paper
and be forgotten as quickly as possible. When most
teachers see students busily writing copious notes, they
say to themselves, "What a good day. I am lecturing
great, they are learning what I am teaching." But in
reality are we really John Lockes writing on the students
blank tablets while the students are writing and doodling
on their tablets? I wonder. More often than not, we are
so ignorant of who the students are and of the fact that
they--just as we did when we were students--approach
academics so differently from us, we have so often
inadvertently academically waterproofed their minds and
hearts against intellectual and emotional seepage. I have
found that when most students say, for example, "I
hate ...." or "I'm no good at....", they
really mean, "I hate the way such and such subject
has been taught."
When we
prepare a course, most of us solely focus on organizing
subject content, preparing lectures, scheduling office
hours, developing reading lists, formulating assignments,
formulating quizzes, tests and exams. I think there is
more. I am ultimately after motivating, engaging and
stimulating ways for students to learn how to learn and
become their own learners, ways that helps the material
be meaningful and interesting to the students, ways that
in a creative and imaginative and interest-stirring
manner grabs them so that they can grab the subject and
absorb it and retain and let it become a part of them,
ways that gives the subject a meaning in their lives. I
want to use ways in which the students acquire both an
intuitive feeling and desire for the subject in
particular and learning in general. I don't want the
students to be assaulted, but embraced; I don't want them
threatened, but charmed; I don't want them to be bored,
but excited; I don't want them to engage in combat with
the material, but to hug it endearingly. I want the
students to use the material, want to use it, enjoy using
it, and thereby understand its utility in their lives and
those of others.
I think
students, most of us for that matter--we academics call
it research--learn best by actively and engagingly and
meaningfully doing something rather than passively
listening and being spoken to. I think I have more than a
formal body of information to transmit. I teach
searching, seeing, getting involved with the subject
matter, getting involved with themselves and others,
integrity, creativity, imagination, originality,
responsibility, possibility, self-awareness, cooperation,
questioning, self-worth, authenticity, risk taking; to
let the people in the classroom see what they are capable
of doing by doing. It is doing that they learn these
things, and that are convinced of the significance of
these things. In my class, I never lecture. I don't give
quizzes, tests, or exams. Students do, engage, discuss,
experience, venture, discover, present.
It is not
an easy way to teach, but I have found that it is a lot
more meaningful way to learn. You know as well as I do
that true teaching, good teaching, true learning do not
just happen. As I recently said, nothing is magical,
nothing is automatic; nothing is instant; nothing runs
itself although at time others may think so. Sometimes it
looks like we sometimes play it by ear, not worry about
theories and abstract constructs and just walk into a
classroom and make it all happen. Sometimes all people
see is the flexibility and openness but not understanding
either the structure or the method to the apparant
maddness. It is a lot of work --takes a lot of time and
sometimes pain--to live care and love; it is a lot of
work to reflect, articulate, activate; it is a lot of
work to prepare, design, deliver, evaluate content and
intent; it is a lot of work to get to know each student;
it is a lot of work to keep track of the individual
progress of each student; it is a lot of work to link
theory and practice and the individual. Good teaching is
a demanding, complicated art. Good teaching is hard work.
Good teaching is a lot of work. I sometimes think you
have to be part fool, part romantic, part hero, part
seducer, part trickster, part dreamer, part realist, part
architect, part construction worker, part artist, part
circus performer--and work hard at somehow balancing each
of those parts every step of the way for each student as
would an aerialist walking a tightrope--hoping you get
across this time without falling off the highwire.
Though it
is a lot of time-consuming and energy-draining work,it is
an enjoyable and exciting and engaging way both to teach
and to learn. Learning generally goes better because the
students generally teach themselves as they do the doing
thing.
My
challenge, then, is to intellectually, emotionally, and
spiritually seduce themselves, to their too often hidden
abilities and talents, their to often lateant potential,
and the subject. I do so by being passionate about them
first, and then the subject. I create an atmosphere of a
supportive and encouraging family in the class so they do
not feel alone in the crowd, do not feel like an isolated
island in a foggy ocean.
When they
say they can't write because they have heard that so
often, I use projects that show them that they can write
and poetically express themselves; when they say they are
shy and can't do anything in front of people, I use
projects to wean them off their reticence; when they say
they are ordinary, I devise projects that lure them into
the extraordinary with laughter and fun and excitement;
when they say they are scared, I conjure up projects that
bring out their fearlessness; when they say they are not
creative, I lead them into seeing the presence and force
of their imagination.
How do I
do that? Well, in one of my moments, playing on the seed
of an idea I got from an e-mail associate, Guy Bensusan
at Arizona State, I came up with what I call, the
"'S'ence of Learning in Community":
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