Teaching is way more challenging than college ever was for me. I've said that before, but had been referring to "real-world experience" challenges like having to know what to say to a kid who insists, "I. DON'T. CARE."
But actually, it's a lot more intellectually challenging, too.
In college, pretty much the answer to every question is, "Well, you see, it's complicated." ("How is marriage portrayed in Jane Austen's Persuasion?" "Well, you see, it's complicated." ; "Can the subaltern speak?" "Well, you see, it's complicated."; "What's the reason for the achievement gap?" "Well, you see, it's complicated.") It's kind of lovely to relish in the complicatedness of it all. Negative capability I think Keats called it. Or maybe it was some other British poet whose work Prof. Saville recited whimsically in ENGL 210. Who cares.
Except in public high schools you're supposed to make sense of the complicatedness. You're supposed to actually do something practical. Which I like to do and is always my goal, but it's hard to know which practical thing I can do, and how, while remaining faithful to my complicated ideals. It's a lot more comfortable to swim around in a bunch of theoretical bullshit -- in fact, I'm doing it right now -- but it doesn't get anything done. Which is what my students need from me. Which is hard.
10 comments:
your students need you to swim around in the complicatedness because they need a teacher who continues to go through the process of being challenged and stretched outside of his/her personal comfort zone to learn. That process is what allows you to understand and empathize with your students and find innovative new ways to help them acquire new knowledge. That frustration makes you a better teacher.
wow, what a nice thing to say. thanks, kase.
theorically (of course), i know that it's a good ting to be challenged. but sometimes i just want someone to tell me step-by-step how to teach writing well. and then i can just follow directions and not ask questions.
i know i wouldn't actually like that.
The problem is that as high school English students, you need to learn the right/wrong, the 1,2,3s,and get the definitive answers because you need it to serve as a basis for thinking critically, and eventually, theoretically. But you have reached the theoretical stage, and they are still either needing definitive answers or in a transitional stage.
Basically, I'm not a teacher, but if in HS a teacher told me I could write about whatever I wanted, however I wanted, I would've been like WHAT THE HELL. Especially if I didn't get an 'A' on it, because what were my guidelines? I didn't understand until college what teachers were looking for when they gave me that same freedom.
I disagree. The answer to everything in undergrad is "Patriarchy." Know what the answer to everything is in grad school? "It's already overdetermined."
Teaching is hard, huh?
Good luck. I admire your stamina.
whenever I find myself wanting someone to tell me how to teach I always find an older teacher, ask them how they teach that and then I spend the rest of the day in my mind analyzing why it will bring about the end of all critical thinking ever haha.
Gina: I understand but disagree. That's kind of the back-to-basics approach, which makes a lot of sense in theory, but pretty much translates to five-paragraph essay land. When I've given assignments with specific rules, I've ended up reading weird, unnatural fill-in-the-blank type essays. The grading thing is a good point, but we actually work with a pretty good, stable rubric that so the kids always know how they'll be graded.
Cassie: Well, you see, patriarchy has and has had a complicated impact here.
Susan: ha Yeah. Been there. Many times.
...And that is why I am a business major and not an education major. :)
:)
Yeah, but you know, the business world has brought some really great ideas to education lately.
This is why graduate school is driving me crazy. Everything is complicated. There are never straightforward answers to any question, except "Am I finished with work yet?" (The answer is always no.) And I feel like I'm not doing anything practical; if I'm writing a paper it's so other psychologists and scientists can sit around talking about it on their asses, rather than it actually doing anything.
This is why once I get my Ph.D I am getting away from academia, unless I land a job at a liberal arts college teaching undergrads. Which would be sweet.
the lack of practicality was always my biggest complaint in college, too. so i guess it's sort of lame of me to be complaining about how hard practicality is now.
"Am I finished with work yet?" (The answer is always no.)
Hilarious. And sad.
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