phillip capper writes
>> But the teacher as a transformational tool for the students is the
>critical
>> factor, not the organisation of the classroom. The greatest positive
>> influence on my intellectual life was a teacher with terrifyingly rigid
>and
>> authoritarian practices who also had an absolute and consuming passion
>for
>> his subject (history). So powerful was this contradiction that, as I
>type, I
>> am 17 again, simultaneously frightened and inspired. Dealing with that
>> contradiction in itself was a transformational exercise in expansive
>> learning for all of us in the class. I will not here bore you with the
>> extraordinary life paths of so many thst he taught, and how many of
>them.
>> like me, attribute so much to what at the time seemed to be a
>fundamentally
>> traumatic experience.
it's often seemed to me that most of us remember teachers more than we
remember the content of
the course - we are more often inspired by people than subjects - and at
the same time, it is the subject that certain teachers have been
passionate about that has become attached to our memories of being
"taught" in school. even at the graduate level, i took a course about
Piaget with a prof who was
passionate about Piaget as a man, and convinced of the universal validity
of Piagetian theory - while i was never convinced, myself, i also learned
more about Piaget than from anywhere else in this woman's
class.
it is the person - teacher - mentor who inspires learning, something that
is hardly a revelation, i know,
but something that is immeasurable in teacher ed programs.
it still seems to me that there is a futility in thinking a person can be
taught to teach others,
but there is hope in learning to inspire a passion for learning in those
who will be trying to do the same in the contexts of schools and
classrooms.
diane
"I want you to put the crayon back in my brain."
Homer Simpson
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
vancouver, bc
mailing address: 46 broadview avenue, montreal, qc, H9R 3Z2
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 01 2001 - 01:01:16 PDT