RoR: Forum

Thanks for this essay, Tibor.

I'm about to teach a lecture on a chapter wherein 5 main philosophies (Idealism, Realism, Naturalism, Pragmatism, Existentialism) are related to exercise science -- and I was pulling my hair out as to whether and how I was going to present these 5 views.

The textbook treats the 5 philosophies as interchangeable -- and affords them equal time. But, being especially sympathetic to the outlined philosophy: Naturalism, I wasn't sure that I could do the same. This essay has given me the moral support I needed in order to present those 5 contradicting views without ridicule.

Thank you,

Ed

Post 1

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 4:53am

I'm not convinced that a person preaching is a bad thing. If you don't like what your professor or teacher is preaching, you can go somewhere else.

Post 2

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 5:34am

Dean, you have a great point with regard to private school. But as an aside, would you not agree that a conundrum rears up -- when public school teachers use public money to advance their private interests??

Ed

Post 3

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 9:14am

Hi Tibor

One of my favourite topics; the guide on the side or the sage on the stage.

ALL teachers should be obliged to post their philosophy of education and learning, on their classroom doors. If these were stated as concrete, observable, behaviourable objectives; students and those paying the bills, would be in a position to make informed decisions, when choosing courses, and, when calling a teacher to task.

The mere opening of the classroom door, would provide an opportunity for a daily reality check and reminder, of who the teacher serves, and how the service is to be delivered.

When good teachers do this voluntarily, students and others will be predisposed to evaluate all their teachers by the same criteria. By bravely posting a comment sheet, good teachers with tenure, would provoke surepticious comment on the less admirable delivery systems of incompetent immoral charletans. The evaluation sheet needs to be given on the first day of class, not after the last exam.

Some teachers know their content only. They have no knowledge of paedagogy. Pro-active good teachers, who advertise, can draw attention to the deficient, who may experience some cognitive dissonance and bring themselves up to speed; or find themselves beset in a vehicle, that will drive their corrupt selves out into the street, where they belong.

Teaching is a subversive activity. Been there, and done some of that. How about it Ed, are you one of the brave?
Sharon

Post 4

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 9:23am

Not in church, not in Sunday school, but at an undergraduate college or university, yes, it is a bad thing in at least certain types of classes. In those what one owes is a presentation of the various live options in circulation on a topic. In graduate school, of course, this changes because students are now prepared to argue and take serious issue and there are a bunch of other similar courses they are likely to take. But if, say, free will is being discussed in an undergraduate course, there needs to be a good coverage of a variety of positions, leaving students to figure out what they find most convincing.

Post 5

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 12:52pm

ALL teachers should be obliged to post their philosophy of education and learning, on their classroom doors. If these were stated as concrete, observable, behaviourable objectives; students and those paying the bills, would be in a position to make informed decisions, when choosing courses, and, when calling a teacher to task.

Perhaps - but what of required classes?

Post 6

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 1:24pm

Teachers preach the environmental religion to kids in grade school.

--Brant

Post 7

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 2:41pm

Teachers preach the environmental religion to kids in grade school.

Not in upstate New York... maybe in Berkeley, CA. Depends on the situation, the city, the teacher.

Post 8

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 8:03pm

Hi Robert

All teachers would be required to do so, as a condition of employment; pre-school to doctoral programme.

I can tell you that when one teacher publishes such a document voluntarily, it attracts the attention of everyone; from the custodian, to the kid on his way to the loo. The process of creating the document, itself, clarifies and improves the teaching protocols. Each teacher has a customized recipe for success.

Teachers manage the thinking of impressionable minds for long periods each day. It should be mandatory that the public know how educators understand their relationships with their learners. It's most instructive to see what are considered priorities. Students and parents have a springboard for launching a discussion. Skilful deans, heads of departments and school principals can utilize the document to guide the teacher mentoring and evaluation process.

When educators fail to live up to their own philosophical vision, there'll be some 'splainin' to do.

Post 9

Monday, April 10, 2006 - 10:49pm

"To this act of consciousness, the Socratic principle applies: the teacher is only an occasion, whoever he may be, even if he is a god, because I can discover my own untruth only by myself, because only when I discover it is it discovered, not before, even though the whole world knew it....
Between one human being and another, to be of assistance is supreme, but to beget is reserved for the god" (emphasis mine)- Soren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments

The relation between teacher and follower (or student) is a subject which has received ample philosophical attention since the beginnings of Western thought, a fact which makes the contemporary state of educational practice, ably described by Tibor, all the more pitiable. That teachers have failed to tap such a rich source of educational wisdom is due, at least in part, to the contemporary state of philosophy, which has abandoned its classical vision- to seek truth- and decided to reduce reason to a mere instrument, whose use is restricted to purely theoretical logical systems and pragmatic calculations. What happened to the wonder of the ancient Greeks, to whom philosophy was a way of life?

I digress. In any case, what is dearly needed in academia is something like a return to the Socratic model of the teacher, articulated so well by Socrates in Plato's Theaetetus. His description of the teacher as a kind of midwife represents, to my mind, nothing less than the ideal of the educational relationship. The initial quote is a nice summary of the Socratic notion (by a philosopher amazing in his own right) of the "teacher." But, of course, I recommend reading the idea laid out in full in Plato's Theaetetus.

Post 10

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 7:57pm

Mr. Liebniz, Sir

Your reminding us of "teacher as midwife" is indeed a useful analogy. Have you visited www.highscope.org during this incarnation? You might be surprised most pleasantly, by their interpretation of teachers, as caring supporters of child development; as regards the youngest of children.

The teachers of older learners would "merely" expand on this notion; helping students to choose and carry out plans, as they build on the foundations laid during the early years.

If you can teach kindergarten, you can teach anything.

Post 11

Friday, April 14, 2006 - 6:53am

This sort of thing was just starting when I was in school. I remember in 7th Grade I had a class called "Energy Science" and one question the teacher told us the answer to was "Is there an Energy Crisis?" and the answer was Yes. It was not to think and present any position for or against, he simply stated that it was correct to say Yes and he told us why.

Post 12

Friday, April 14, 2006 - 8:55am

When I was still in graduate school at UC Santa Barbara I used to hang out with members of the New Left--at one point they even asked me to moderate a debate between the SDS (Students of a Democratic Society) and the BSU (Black Student Union). In one discussion with some members of the sociology faculty--as I recall it was Richard Flacks, who was a guest lecturer in my Intro to Marxist Economics class--which had several soft Marxists teaching there, I was told that for Leftist professors it is a revolutionary imperative to use the classroom as a forum for advocacy. All that talk about the tradition of liberal education, with the emphasis on choice--students having the responsibility and right to make up their own minds--is, after all, a bourgeois ruse, deluding students into thinking they live in a bona fide free society. In fact, they are prisoners in a capitalist tyranny, so they need to be made aware of this and thus the class room must be a place of revolutionary education.

Post 13

Friday, April 14, 2006 - 9:34am

Tibor,

=============
When I was still in graduate school at UC Santa Barbara I used to hang out with members of the New Left ...
=============

This (Tibor hanging with the hippies as a youth) reminds of a quote [paraphrased] ...

If you're not a liberal when you're young -- then you are a heartless SOB; if you are not a conservative when you are old -- then you are a brainless fool.

Ed
[a former socialist pig]

Post 14

Saturday, April 15, 2006 - 10:05pm

Sorry, I was never a hippy. I was a full-fledged Libertarian/Objectivist back then--woke up at 21--but I was civil to these folks and they trusted me. Go figure.

Post 15

Saturday, April 15, 2006 - 10:43pm

Tibor,

============
Sorry, I was never a hippy. I was a full-fledged Libertarian/Objectivist back then--woke up at 21--but I was civil to these folks and they trusted me. Go figure.
============

Well, you woke up before I did (I'm a late -- but full! -- bloomer). My guess is that they trusted you because you were a man of principle (men of principle can always be trusted to follow their principles). Your principle of civility most likely tipped the scales -- liberals worship civility (though they do this to a fault).

:-)

Ed

Post 16

Monday, April 17, 2006 - 7:26am

Actually liberals do not respect or practice civility in the full blown sense of refraining from using brute force in their interaction with others. Civilized conduct means, basically, to abstain from the sort of ways that wild animals deploy and to stick to reasoning in getting one's way. Clearly liberals are not in this sense civil at all. Only classical liberals and libertarians can properly be labeled civilized or civil since they renounce violence as a means to their ends.

Post 17

Monday, April 17, 2006 - 9:07pm

Excellent point, and well-noted, too.

Ed

Post 18

Sunday, May 5, 2013 - 10:48pm

From Professor Machan's article [my emphasis]:

...the professor is not supposed to take sides. He or she is supposed to familiarize students with these prominent perspectives and leave it to the students to decide which position is the most reasonable. Of course, total nonpartisanship is unlikely, even if possible. And students usually do not expect it�nor do they need it since they are, after all, capable of careful thinking. But they do deserve a respectful representation of all those positions the professor may not find convincing.

This is so true! Maybe we've had so many poor teachers we've forgotten, or never had the opportunity to learn what great teaching can be like. There is a professor of psychology at George Washington, Daniel Robinson, who teaches a history of psychology course that I had the great pleasure of viewing on DVD. He presented the key views of each major school of psychology so persuasively that I was thinking, "Ah, THIS is the theoretical orientation he believes in!" But then he presented to criticisms of that view - every bit as persuasively. I was left feeling that Freud himself couldn't have done a better job of presenting psychoanalysis.

Professor Machan is right... that is what quality teaching is made of. Professors that belittle, or give short shrift to the positions they don't like are just snarky, condescending, cowardly, and dishonest - they aren't teaching, they are either just stroking their ego, or actively proselytizing.

And, in my opinion, any professor that really excels at presenting each major position at it's best, should be free, in the end, to explain his or her own views.

Post 19

Saturday, May 11, 2013 - 1:11pm