Liberal Education & Teaching

Post for 11/1

There are a few things that were mentioned in class today that got me thinking a lot about teaching as a chosen profession and what I need to do to be successful in it. We discussed the day-to-day schedule of a teacher and frankly, I like it. I know myself well enough to know that I always work best under pressure and with a lot to do. Having a full slate every day with an hour or two to myself is actually ideal for me. I don't know why but even when I was in high school and was lifting at 5AM for football, school from 7:30-2:30, football or track practice after school and homework afterwards I was always the best kind of exhausted and really productive. Looking at a schedule like that as if my life is laid out for me is slightly disconcerting but I know I'll be at my best in that kind of situation. If teaching were only the visible work of teaching, my day would be over by 3PM and frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with myself with all that time.

Another thing that struck me in class today was the reminder of having students create their own expectations. This still kind of puts me in panic mode even as a graduate student because I've become so used to having top-down instruction. Talking about it again today really seemed to resonate with me though. If students create a percentage of their own stakes in the class then it not only provides a lesson in responsibility but takes some of that top-down agency away from the instructor. As long as one is OK with giving up that sort of power then it seems like it could be beneficial to the classroom environment as a whole. What's important to determine though is where your criteria and expectations end and where the students' begin. There's definitely a balance to keep in mind but that's related to the rigidity we spoke about earlier this afternoon. That said, I think there will be some non-negotiables (subject to change, of course!) in my future classroom. Respect towards others (especially while speaking), high achievement and improvement and, most importantly, no damn cell phones. They are beyond a pet peeve for me at this point as they immediately signal to the other person that you are more engaged in another conversation at the moment. See Rule 1 about respect towards others. I might be wrong on this one and I may be corrected by some of my colleagues but I really don't think I am.

Finally, I was struck by something R mentioned in class today about liberal education being the capital to enter the world of power. I had never really thought about it that way. As a student who went to a small liberal arts college with a very large, very competitive and very challenging engineering program, my majors of History and English were always belittled by many of my friends and classmates. “You just don't get it,” they seemed to say. “It's extremely hard, very complex and I'll graduate with a SKILL. Will your skills translate to getting a job?” I'm sure I could have easily lived up to their criteria if I had chosen to go into law like much of my class or study Biochemistry and go to Medical school like my academically perfect roommate of 4 years and best friend of 8 years now. I didn't though, I studied History because it was what appealed to me. At the beginning it was just an intuitive feeling about knowledge for the sake of knowledge and I only later justified my degree with an articulated answer about why studying history is important and why others should know about it too (this is a long answer I'll reserve for another blog post).

What my liberal education did do was give me a vocabulary and a background where I could potentially end up in any of these fields... Well, maybe not engineering but almost anything else! I was bright enough to succeed in the sciences if I chose, I could have done well in business if it interested me. I had the opportunity to enter any of these professions and still have the means to dramatically change professions on the late end of my 20's. It gave me opportunity. Liberal education has currency in the world but we have to make important choices in relation to the power it has. I'm happy with my choice to teach history and social studies but it's clear to me that I need to be aware of the choice that a liberal education presents us with. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge isn't adequate. It's the combination of broad knowledge and choice that makes a liberal education not only adequate but essential.