[lit-ideas] Re: The Education of a Swain

  • From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:40:37 -0230

Quoting John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>:

> >
> >
> >>>  There IS a role for authority and lecture and teacher-centered
> > responsibility, EARLY ON in the process. Many of my students come to class
> > waiting to be "informed" by the education machine "Dr. Wager." I use that
> > early time to dis-abuse them of that notion, but I do so by lecture and by
> > discipline and by taking full responsibility for their learning rather
> than
> > throw it all on them at the start. THEN, when we've taken a look together
> at
> > the nature of education, we can start all over and develop different roles
> > in the classroom.
> >
> >
> There, my friends, is a real teacher. Honored to know him.
> John

Nobody who has been on this list for any period of time would doubt that John W
is a real teacher. The devil is in the details: i.e., On what grounds is it
obligatory or even permissible for the teacher to "take full responsibility"
for students' learning (or failure in learning). I teach in a professional
university unit and in an Arts unit. In neither context do I feel or believe
compelled to accept "full" responsibility for what my students do or do not
learn. 

Walter O
MUN




> 
> 
> -- 
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
> 

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