Oh, thank you David Hawkins (in your article that I had to, but had no time to, read for Anna's class this week) for that lovely quote. It rang so true for me and my struggles this year. As many of you probably know, my partner Devon is getting her MFT, and she often tells me that therapy school makes her feel crazy. To this I frequently retort, "and teacher school makes you feel dumb". It's true, at least for me. There must be something to it then, as Ulysses says "no man is the lord of anything... till he communicate his parts to others". There is the old adage that many members of my family quote frequently, either in reference to themselves or to other family members, "Jack of all trades, Master of none". It serves as a poke at our relentless and restless needs to change careers and hobbies as soon as we gain a working knowledge and basic skill-set. I know a little about a lot, it's true. The subject matter knowledge as well as the confidence in both that knowledge and my skill as a teacher that seem to be necessary to teach well do at times, escape me. I love the idea of empowering the student. It strikes me as my true purpose in teaching to propose new systems and information and facilitate interest and growth. Not always sure HOW to do this, but I definitely see the straight and narrow road (often from the ditch off to the side) of teacher as facilitator. In the article there is a long story about the author searching desperately to find a common interest in order to gain the trust of children, and it rang true even to my experience of the adolescents in my 9th grade class. Although it seems to me that it is far harder for the adult to feign interest and be believed by an adolescent than a young-child. So, I must always try to find some way to identify with and relate to the material I am teaching. When I read a passage in the book we are reading that I find particularly interesting, or that I believe is a very appealing example of figurative language, I always get their attention. So back to the real. Always that. Are you distracted and anxious?; then that's what you teach. Are you bored and thinking of something else?; then that's what you teach. Authenticity and knowledge coupled with the desire to facilitate interest, learning, and growth, that's what we need. A sturdy box of all kinds of tools and a wide array of interests do come in handy after all... "jack of all trades, master of knowledge"... perhaps?
I'll leave you with an exciting quote from the other article I limped through this week by M. S. Friedman: "It is also impossible to safeguard the student by any distinctions in content, such as what is 'progressive' and what is 'reactionary,' what is 'patriotic' and what is 'subversive,' what is in the spirit of science and what is not. These are in essence distinctions between the propaganda of which one approves and the propaganda of which one disapproves." HEY!
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