Overdue 5 Words - Teaching
Teaching
When I was in high school, I had this weird and wonderful opportunity to work with Andre Gregory. He was a personal friend of the woman running the drama club and came in to coach us all on our production of Murder in the Cathedral. I played Thomas à Beckett. Did I mention it was an all-girls school?
Anyway, while were talking he told me that when he first started acting he gave himself a deadline. If he had not become a working actor by 30, he would become a Lawyer or a Rabbi. As you can see, I never forgot this. It's one of the zillion things that kept me off the ordination track for a while. "Am I considering the priesthood simply because I couldn't make it in show business?"
There is something extraordinary that happens when acting really works. The connection is electric, and you can feel why drama has so often been regarded as sacred ritual. It's an even keener feeling when you're doing good improvisation, a shared understanding that can feel like (or maybe even be) an altered state.
This is what teaching feels like when my students start to understand new ideas.
On an intellectual level, I value my teaching because it's what makes my scholarship relevant in two ways. First, it means I am working on material that will get passed on to more than the 15 people who are likely to read anything I publish. More important, the work I do in the classroom informs the questions I pursue in my writing. My last article arose quite clearly out of a conversation with a student. My next one is likely to do that too.
On a moral level, I value my teaching because it allows me to think of myself as a superheroine, battling my nemesis Bibilical Literalism, and fighting for the freedom of biblically-interested minds everywhere.
But honestly, the best part of teaching is the high, the physical euphoria of changing someone's mind. It's magic.
I'm not sure how much sense that made, but it's the best way I can express it right now.
When I was in high school, I had this weird and wonderful opportunity to work with Andre Gregory. He was a personal friend of the woman running the drama club and came in to coach us all on our production of Murder in the Cathedral. I played Thomas à Beckett. Did I mention it was an all-girls school?
Anyway, while were talking he told me that when he first started acting he gave himself a deadline. If he had not become a working actor by 30, he would become a Lawyer or a Rabbi. As you can see, I never forgot this. It's one of the zillion things that kept me off the ordination track for a while. "Am I considering the priesthood simply because I couldn't make it in show business?"
There is something extraordinary that happens when acting really works. The connection is electric, and you can feel why drama has so often been regarded as sacred ritual. It's an even keener feeling when you're doing good improvisation, a shared understanding that can feel like (or maybe even be) an altered state.
This is what teaching feels like when my students start to understand new ideas.
On an intellectual level, I value my teaching because it's what makes my scholarship relevant in two ways. First, it means I am working on material that will get passed on to more than the 15 people who are likely to read anything I publish. More important, the work I do in the classroom informs the questions I pursue in my writing. My last article arose quite clearly out of a conversation with a student. My next one is likely to do that too.
On a moral level, I value my teaching because it allows me to think of myself as a superheroine, battling my nemesis Bibilical Literalism, and fighting for the freedom of biblically-interested minds everywhere.
But honestly, the best part of teaching is the high, the physical euphoria of changing someone's mind. It's magic.
I'm not sure how much sense that made, but it's the best way I can express it right now.