Reflections on teaching
Today was graduation day at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where I taught for 23 years. Two former students of mine walked across the stage, two young folks whose lives I had the great privilege of sharing, if only briefly. Their achievement made me look back on my career and reminded me of why I taught, why I miss teaching, and why I think so many of the contemporary critics of higher education miss the mark completely.
Teaching is, first and foremost, an act of love, a multifaceted expression of our collective regard for the generation(s) that will follow us. It is also an expression of our own love, for our students and for the subject(s) that we pursued for our advanced degrees. It is also the manifestation of our inner need to learn, a primal aspect of our very humanity, for it was our capacity to learn, using the rapidly evolving brain we inherited from our pre-sapiens ancestors, that gave us the tools to make ever increasing sense of the world about us. For me, that "world" is the natural world, the world of science and all that science reveals of the physical universe.
I did not enter into teaching for monetary or status rewards, and I doubt many of my colleagues did, at least at first. (I admit, for some, the frustrations of the teaching profession has turned romantics into cynics, and thus automatons going through the motions without concern for the students or even the material they are supposed to be imparting.)
For me, it was the intense sense of awe at the power and sweep of the earth and its history. I think I was in the 9th grade, taking Earth Science, when the die was cast that would end up with me earning a Ph.D. in Geology. The teacher was a temporary, emergency hire, with a degree in forestry, not earth science. But he was an avid fossil collector, and taught from that passion. He even arranged to take some of us out to dig for fossils in the area near where I grew up...in the Finger Lakes region of NY State. After graduating from H.S., and a miserable year as a chemistry major at SUNY-Oneonta, I changed my major to Earth Science...and I was hooked. I was fortunate that the Earth Sciences Department at SUNY-Oneonta was populated by an extraordinary group of dedicated and inspiring teachers. One, Robert Simmonds, taught Historical Geology, and I can remember staying up for two days straight for his final, determined that I would ace it...only to nearly fall asleep during the exam. But I did ace it. (Ironically, the memory of that class made me uncomfortable when it came my turn to teach it...I never felt I could do the subject justice by comparison). Eventually, I ended up at the University of South Carolina, when I would do an M.S. and my Ph.D. Serendipity again worked in my favor, for this was the kind of place that I would prosper...unlike the earlier, abortive year I'd spent at the University of Colorado (a fine school, but one that did not match me).
Ironically, it was in Boulder (home to U of C) that I met some folks who would kindle in me a desire to teach...most especially Bill Romey, principle creator of the Earth Science Teacher Preparation Project...a grant-funded effort to get university teaching assistants to try a form of student-centered, inquiry-based approach that he'd developed, with the idea that teaching assistants would influence the undergrads in their courses who would then encounter the teaching method when they went into the public schools. It was a transformative experience, and one awakened in me a desire to teach. I must admit, though, I never seriously implemented the methods that he demonstrated to us, and for most of my career, I carried a sense of guilt for that failure. In retrospect, however, I realize that my "style" of teaching is that of a story-teller, and that I would have enjoyed my career a whole lot more if I'd simply accepted that without judgement.
The over-emphasis on "jobs" that seems to drive most of the educational decisions being forced on higher education by politicians is a tragic crippling of the whole process of education...a refusal to acknowledge that higher education is a voyage of self-discovery and of personal growth, and secondarily a preparation for a particular career. As I found out in my abortive first year as a chemistry major...picking a major because someone else suggests (or demands) it can be a miserable experience, if not worse. And finding the subject or field that fulfills one's passions, engages one's imagination and provides an ongoing delight and excitement is the most profound fortune to be had from a college experience. Countless studies have confirmed that finding that at which one is both proficient and enjoyable is likely to lead to a more fulfilling life...and often a more remunerative one as well.
Martha Nussbaum, one of my intellectual heroes, wrote an passionate plea for liberal education in "Cultivating Humanity," a book I've returned to many times since first reading it more than a decade, perhaps more than 2 decades ago. Even though I, like so many undergraduates, though some of my "general education" courses were a waste of time and a distraction from my real interest...Earth Science, I know now that several of them were among the most important and long-lasting influences on my adult life. One, a music appreciation course, opened the door to classical music and has had a greater impact on my daily life than any of the Earth Science classes I took, the material in which became dated quickly and has had to be updated many times since. There were several others that have enriched my life far more than the information-rich, subject-matter courses of my major. They were the "leavening" in the bread of my education, and I am very glad for them, even now, in retirement.
I cringe every time I read of the cuts that are being forced upon my former school, and even here in Bellingham, where I live but a block off Western Washington University, I see the chilling effect the proposed budget cuts are having on the school. As the ax-wielding politicians ply their trade, it is clear that they truly do not understand, perhaps cannot understand, the magnitude of the damage they are doing to so many young people. (Their own children, of course, will be able to go to select schools and avoid the cuts, if they choose). In the name of "efficiency" and "job-preparation," music, arts, interdisciplinary courses, many of the central subjects of the "liberal arts" are being shorted in favor of those that seem to have a more immediate economic return. What is being forgotten is that it is not enough just to be able to "DO"...we must have the intellectual framework to decide what we "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" do. Moral and ethical standards do not come already packaged with technological advances, and most of the highly technical fields are not equipped to even consider them. We risk becoming a nation of heartless technocrats in the employ of equally heartless plutocrats. This I fear profoundly.
Teaching is, first and foremost, an act of love, a multifaceted expression of our collective regard for the generation(s) that will follow us. It is also an expression of our own love, for our students and for the subject(s) that we pursued for our advanced degrees. It is also the manifestation of our inner need to learn, a primal aspect of our very humanity, for it was our capacity to learn, using the rapidly evolving brain we inherited from our pre-sapiens ancestors, that gave us the tools to make ever increasing sense of the world about us. For me, that "world" is the natural world, the world of science and all that science reveals of the physical universe.
I did not enter into teaching for monetary or status rewards, and I doubt many of my colleagues did, at least at first. (I admit, for some, the frustrations of the teaching profession has turned romantics into cynics, and thus automatons going through the motions without concern for the students or even the material they are supposed to be imparting.)
For me, it was the intense sense of awe at the power and sweep of the earth and its history. I think I was in the 9th grade, taking Earth Science, when the die was cast that would end up with me earning a Ph.D. in Geology. The teacher was a temporary, emergency hire, with a degree in forestry, not earth science. But he was an avid fossil collector, and taught from that passion. He even arranged to take some of us out to dig for fossils in the area near where I grew up...in the Finger Lakes region of NY State. After graduating from H.S., and a miserable year as a chemistry major at SUNY-Oneonta, I changed my major to Earth Science...and I was hooked. I was fortunate that the Earth Sciences Department at SUNY-Oneonta was populated by an extraordinary group of dedicated and inspiring teachers. One, Robert Simmonds, taught Historical Geology, and I can remember staying up for two days straight for his final, determined that I would ace it...only to nearly fall asleep during the exam. But I did ace it. (Ironically, the memory of that class made me uncomfortable when it came my turn to teach it...I never felt I could do the subject justice by comparison). Eventually, I ended up at the University of South Carolina, when I would do an M.S. and my Ph.D. Serendipity again worked in my favor, for this was the kind of place that I would prosper...unlike the earlier, abortive year I'd spent at the University of Colorado (a fine school, but one that did not match me).
Ironically, it was in Boulder (home to U of C) that I met some folks who would kindle in me a desire to teach...most especially Bill Romey, principle creator of the Earth Science Teacher Preparation Project...a grant-funded effort to get university teaching assistants to try a form of student-centered, inquiry-based approach that he'd developed, with the idea that teaching assistants would influence the undergrads in their courses who would then encounter the teaching method when they went into the public schools. It was a transformative experience, and one awakened in me a desire to teach. I must admit, though, I never seriously implemented the methods that he demonstrated to us, and for most of my career, I carried a sense of guilt for that failure. In retrospect, however, I realize that my "style" of teaching is that of a story-teller, and that I would have enjoyed my career a whole lot more if I'd simply accepted that without judgement.
The over-emphasis on "jobs" that seems to drive most of the educational decisions being forced on higher education by politicians is a tragic crippling of the whole process of education...a refusal to acknowledge that higher education is a voyage of self-discovery and of personal growth, and secondarily a preparation for a particular career. As I found out in my abortive first year as a chemistry major...picking a major because someone else suggests (or demands) it can be a miserable experience, if not worse. And finding the subject or field that fulfills one's passions, engages one's imagination and provides an ongoing delight and excitement is the most profound fortune to be had from a college experience. Countless studies have confirmed that finding that at which one is both proficient and enjoyable is likely to lead to a more fulfilling life...and often a more remunerative one as well.
Martha Nussbaum, one of my intellectual heroes, wrote an passionate plea for liberal education in "Cultivating Humanity," a book I've returned to many times since first reading it more than a decade, perhaps more than 2 decades ago. Even though I, like so many undergraduates, though some of my "general education" courses were a waste of time and a distraction from my real interest...Earth Science, I know now that several of them were among the most important and long-lasting influences on my adult life. One, a music appreciation course, opened the door to classical music and has had a greater impact on my daily life than any of the Earth Science classes I took, the material in which became dated quickly and has had to be updated many times since. There were several others that have enriched my life far more than the information-rich, subject-matter courses of my major. They were the "leavening" in the bread of my education, and I am very glad for them, even now, in retirement.
I cringe every time I read of the cuts that are being forced upon my former school, and even here in Bellingham, where I live but a block off Western Washington University, I see the chilling effect the proposed budget cuts are having on the school. As the ax-wielding politicians ply their trade, it is clear that they truly do not understand, perhaps cannot understand, the magnitude of the damage they are doing to so many young people. (Their own children, of course, will be able to go to select schools and avoid the cuts, if they choose). In the name of "efficiency" and "job-preparation," music, arts, interdisciplinary courses, many of the central subjects of the "liberal arts" are being shorted in favor of those that seem to have a more immediate economic return. What is being forgotten is that it is not enough just to be able to "DO"...we must have the intellectual framework to decide what we "SHOULD" or "SHOULD NOT" do. Moral and ethical standards do not come already packaged with technological advances, and most of the highly technical fields are not equipped to even consider them. We risk becoming a nation of heartless technocrats in the employ of equally heartless plutocrats. This I fear profoundly.
A beautifully written essay, Dr. E, and I thank you for it!
ReplyDeleteVery good, and well expressed.
ReplyDelete