[lit-ideas] Re: Potlach etc.


On Sep 27, 2007, at 11:51 AM, Judith Evans wrote:




My daughter's professors are still in "ought to be able to" mode.
I'm still in 'ought' but for a reasonable version of 'ought'. But then, 
British
students now do need some 'ought'
I was about to write that we don't disagree, reasonable being the key word here, but I'm no longer sure that's entirely true. Maybe we can settle on "mostly true." I believe students need to read and to write and without prescribed amounts of work colleges turn into diploma mills. The only quibble I have concerns the balance between "required" and "suggested" reading. I err now very much more on the side of "suggested." I am in the privileged position of being free to teach what I want, how I want. My seminars now take the form of an archeological dig. I stake out some territory and explain why I think it's worth digging here. We all read some things together to develop something of a common vocabulary. And then we dig, which is to say that students follow their own curiosity into the reading list, or propose alternatives, and then report back to the group on what they find. Thus we all learn. At the end of the semester the question is, "What did you learn?"
PNCA's president is currently pressing me to develop a proposal for a bachelors degree based on this model of teaching. I'll do so, but it will take some reflection. I think it works very well with upper division students who know that education is expensive and who want to make the most of their experience. That's who I teach currently. I'll propose something a little different for freshpersons. Essentially I believe that almost anything we do to encourage students to find their own and personal curiosity about the world is educationally sound and that, conversely, actions that we take which result in diminished curiosity are bad. I'm not unlike the protagonist in the "History Boys" in this respect. 




But I was

actually thinking about those moments when everyone in the class has
prepared something and the issue is, who shall speak first?  Do you
pick the most eager student?  The recalcitrant one?  The one at the
back of the room?  The one who is likely to start well?


rare moments, yes?!
Not so rare. When people are looking into things that genuinely interest them, they are quite likely to produce. 

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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