Relevance and Motivation
I was all set to link to an essay in the Times of London about education tat is pretty darn close to the exact opposite of my thinking in terms of the role of the teacher. And then when I went to reread the essay and get the URL I discovered that the Times site is down for maintenance. After an hour of trying to come up with something else to write, I’m saying to heck with it, going from memory, and promising to update this post with the link later.
The basic idea was that the essayist was bemoaning the effort to make school subjects relevant to students’ lives and interests, because a teacher’s responsibility is not to the students, it is to the knowledge that the teacher passes on. The teacher presents the knowledge, finds that small group of students who are willing to accept it on the terms that the teacher offers, and leaves the rest to their fates.
I don’t even know where to begin, but I’ll start with this: if no one cares about the knowledge, then the knowledge dies. When people care about the knowledge, it multiplies. (If you doubt me, go check out how much space Wikipedia has devoted to the exploits of fictional characters.)
I’d move on to a more general point that students who see a way to use knowledge will generally do a better job of absorbing, retaining, and understanding that knowledge; indeed, for many theorists, the ability to use information is one of the defining elements of comprehension. But I’ve been blabbing about Dewey for a while here, so you probably already have that idea.
Point so far is, even if a teacher’s job is knowledge propagation, it sure seems to be that a teacher would be interested in maximizing his or her chances of success. The alternative seems to be the equivalent of throwing a bunch of seeds into uncultivated land and claiming that the farmer’s responsibility is only to those seeds who happen to find a spot where they can grow.
Beyond that, though, is that I have a completely different conception of the role of a teacher, especially at the pre-college level. Teachers are driving many of the formative experiences of the next generation of society, so it kind of behooves everyone to make those experiences constructive ones. I know there are realities to deal with and compromises to be made, but geez, can we at least get a decent read on the ideal?
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.