Ramblings

2011-05-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

I just read a little booklet put together as a tribute to one of my mentors, Dr. Max van Manen of the University of Alberta upon his retirement. A wonderful tribute to a person thoroughly deserving of tributes. In my small and humble submission to this project I wrote,

“Max, sadly for me, was often a voice crying in the wilderness. Amid the contemporary storm of calls for 'accountability' which, for most educators translates into increased performance scores, Max continued to cry out for the fundamental accounting of a teacher to his students. His vision of the trusted, caring protector who walks with his students into the larger world, is as real in this fragmented and wired world as it was in the world of the ancient Greeks.”

I'm pessimistic about the future of education when I see that people like Dr. van Manen and the wonderful contrarian, Dr. Alfie Kohn, are sometimes relegated to village idiot status by the present 'thinkers, movers and shakers' in education. These new education nabobs seem to be fascinated (blinded) by two themes - themes that are not bad in themselves, but that become so when seen as THE answer to all of our problems. The latest gadget (not i Pad, but i Pad 2!, or whatever the megamothercorp pukes out next) rather than a useful tool, becomes the must have, the new engine for discovery learning, the road to pedagogical nirvana, the thing-without-which-we-cannot- live. And those who happen to have a head start on others because of the idle hours they spent gaming in their recent youth, suddenly become the new swamis, and how stupid you are not to thoughtlessly follow them. The second theme is the unreflective reliance on the procedures and findings of 'science' as the one true road to educational wisdom. The most suspect phrase in all of education is 'studies show...' Dueling studies, rarely read but often adopted by lazy bandwagon jumpers, raise more questions than answers, and pose as authoritative pills to suppress healthy skepticism. Studies show that studies show almost anything the reader wants them to. Or, most often, they simply confirm the obvious.

And the sacrificial lambs, the children, sit and wait for us to take their hands, offer a smile, offer a little bit of ourselves, and walk with them into an often cruel and confusing world. But we'd rather be erudite than thoughtful, up-to-date rather than authentic, mechanical and systematic rather than human.

From a Speech given to First Year Teachers

2011-05-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

In my experience two very simple but somewhat contentious ideas are central to what made my life in the classroom enjoyable and rewarding. I want to share these ideas with you. I’ll refer to these two ideas as The Calling, and The Mystery.

The Call to Pedagogy.

My Social Studies 20 class was beginning a study of the Renaissance. We were looking at slides of Michelangelo’s David, that perfect embodiment of human worth, human potential. Students observed the smooth skin and the perfect proportions. A few oohs and aahs. No question, a great artist. Then we looked at slides of some of his other statues that stood along the hallway. These were called “The Captives”. They seemed to be crude, unfinished blocks of marble. Rough grooves showed where Michelangelo had been chipping away at the stone. Human figures could be discerned within the blocks of marble but they were misshapen, incomplete, cramped, and seemingly abandoned. “Were these Michelangelo’s failures?” I asked. But then one student said, “Maybe Michelangelo was trying to say something with these statues. Maybe these rough forms are his statement about mankind, that we are all captives of circumstances, all imprisoned and imperfect in our humanness.” The class went silent. Smiles of recognition spread from face to face. It was one of those moments that every teacher lives for. A moment of discovery, of growth. A small change had occurred in the world. I beamed inside. I felt pure joy. Why?

As teachers we are intimately involved in the most essentially human project – the project of leading children to the world. A teacher has a passion to share the world with a child. There is nothing that compares to the ‘aha’ moment when a student suddenly gets it. It doesn’t happen every day, and you can’t predict when it’s going to happen, but when you see that face suddenly break through the clouds of incomprehension, wide-eyed and smiling, there’s nothing better. It’s what a teacher lives for. It’s what a teacher is called to do. Those smiles in that moment in that classroom affirmed me as a teacher. And that is a source of pure joy. Erich Fromm said that joy is knowing that you are on the road to becoming what you were meant to become.

Teachers, be ready, be open to these moments of joy. They’re worth more than any pay increase, any working conditions clause, any promotion, any unfunded liability, or even a secure pension plan. I wish you many moments of joy in the years ahead.

The Mystery

Two sources of mystery confront the teacher. On the one hand there is the mystery of what makes humans tick, and on the other is the mystery of what makes the world tick.

A teacher ought to be preoccupied with the continual mystery of human being. Like the child rapt by a worm writhing on the sidewalk after the rain, so too a teacher should be forever fascinated with the parade of young humanity passing before him. I have been privileged to see a hundred first loves in my classrooms. And they’re all the same and they’re all different. And they’re all so sad and so giddy and so hopeless and so affirming. And most of the time the young lovers survive and learn and grow. I’ve seen breath-taking nascent beauty sitting in the third row, unable to put words to the profound loss of childhood. I’ve seen masculine giants tremble at a poem, and hesitant introverts rage at injustice. I’ve seen the smile of comfort on a troubled little face. I’ve had the joy of experiencing these essential human moments with children. What a privilege! What a joy! There’s no life like it.

A sense of mystery is the vehicle that drives growth, and healthy curiosity is the fuel for that vehicle. Teachers must be the guardians of mystery and the flame keepers of curiosity. A teacher’s job is to keep the joy of discovery alive, to never allow mystery to be killed by the false demon of certainty. We should leave certainty for others and, instead, frolic in the joyful mud of uncertainty with our students, get dirty in the messiness of unknowns and unknowables. We should be forever modeling the joy of thought, of puzzlement, of discovery, of making sense of the world. We should be walking question marks. We should have more questions than answers for our students.

I walk into my classroom and say to the students, “Here’s what I just saw in the hallway during class change – two grade eight students kissing, she bending down to meet his lips. What’s that all about? Why kiss in a crowded hallway? What’s the message?” And we launch into a deep discussion about love, infatuation, and teenage angst. No definitive answers. Just an atmosphere of inquiry. Soon students come to class with questions – honest, serious questions about life and the world. They want to know. Teachers need to model the joy of learning and the best way to do that is to openly, unapologetically, infectiously ask questions, and be passionate, life-long learners. Embrace mystery. Avoid the dead-endedness of certainty.

Teachers, I wish you a life of questioning, of growth with and through your students. I urge you to become childlike in you curiosity and your passion for learning. Infect others. Joy is found through this infection.

So what have I learned about teaching? It’s not just about lesson plans and record keeping and reflective journals, classroom management techniques and professional portfolios, test scores and on-task measurements, or the Fraser Institute, or accountability, or measurability. These things are all necessary and important and we have stakeholders and administrators to please. But being a teacher is so much more than any of these things. Being a teacher requires a sense of vocation, of being called to be with children, to walk with children, to experience mystery and joy with children. I wish you all joy as you begin the road to becoming that which you are meant to become.

C'america

2011-05-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

So the people have spoken, or at least 60% have. And what have they said? By stumbling into a Conservative majority in our fair land, they have chosen a sad course for the next four or five years. We can expect a new growth industry in Canada - the building of jails. Vic Toews is off the leash and he's going to 'clean the place up', lock all the bad guys away, and throw away the keys. Getting tough on crime didn't work in Texas and it won't make us any safer here either. It will, however, slake the bloodlust of an idiot segment of the middle class and allow them to wallow in their suburban ennui, safe in the their belief that the best way to make angry people less angry is to hurt them, or at least hide them away some where.

And, with Harper, we can expect more privatization of all things, including the running of jails and the provision of health care. The conservative way is great if you have money and connections; not so great if you don't. We'll see greater disparity between those who have and those who don't, with the concomitant increase in societal unrest. (That's where the new jails come in handy.) And we'll see a slashing of funding to anything that isn't geared directly towards economic growth. Do we really need artists? Do we really need the CBC?

Our foreign policy will become a spawn of the American foreign policy as we rush to become their dependable and obedient northern pet. Middle East issues? Let big brother set the agenda. The UN? Who needs a seat on the Security Council? How valuable is it to protect our traditional image of 'the middling power' and 'the honest mediator'? Who needs sovereignty anyway, when you have free trade?

C'america, here we come.