Stupid Questions Sometimes Get Good Answers
I am taking Teachers, Schools, and Learners - an intro class in the education department. My teacher was a school administrator for 23 years and before that a Special Ed. and PE teacher. He told us he doesn't know anything about educational theory - but he does know how North Carolina Public Schools work. Valuable information, but uninteresting and un-thought-provoking, nonetheless.
We don't have tests, but we do have 14 one-page essays to complete over the course of the semester (and 2 three-page essays). Our first essay is due this afternoon - I started it early yesterday evening, and did not finish it until this morning. After answering questions like "Here are the lyrics to the Beatle's "Strawberry Fields." After listening to the song several times and pondering its messages-both discursive and aesthetic--write a brief essay on how this song both reflects and rejects key themes in this course. If you think another song is worth citing in support or contrast, include it in your essay," [thanks Bud Gerber] you can imagine my dismay upon reading this question:
Why would you or others go into the teaching profession?
I started getting sick to my stomach imagining the "kitties and hearts" essays that he would be expecting. I was stumped.
My original first two sentences were: "Are you seriously asking me this question right now? I would go into the teaching profession to decrease the number of teachers who ask questions that provoke no critical thinking or exploration."
That sentiment developed into a full page essay (single spaced, weird huh?), and here it is:
I have a strong premonition that the reasons I have for going into the teaching profession are different reasons than those of “Others.” I like to avoid speaking for Others whenever possible, and I could not possibly name the multitude of reasons Others have for becoming teachers without making rash generalizations and (probably unfair) assumptions. That said, I will continue this brief essay by stating my own goals rather than listing things about Others that may or may not be true.
I love school. I love learning, I love reading, I love talking to people about their experiences, and I love listening to and seeing the crazy and wonderful things that come out of peoples’ heads. I love being surrounded by people with ideas, people who inspire and become inspired. I love to think and explore, and to encourage others to do the same.
I love the moment when someone “gets it.”
Based on these basic satisfactions and some previous experience, I can only assume that I would actually enjoy being a teacher. I would especially enjoy being an art teacher. As a student, the art classroom for me has always been a place of meditation. It has consistently been the only place at school that I can sit down and think, relax, and let my mind and body work together. In a shared art space, ideas are constantly bouncing around - out of peoples’ heads, and off the walls. If “Ideas” could be visualized as tangible objects, they would be constantly moving - not just around, but over, under, and through; They’d by colliding with other Ideas, combining, separating, multiplying. My job as an art teacher will be to guide students in grasping the Ideas that dynamically surround them at all times.
As an art teacher I will draw information from various other disciplines to make learning new concepts and pieces of art history easier to understand. I will guide and facilitate learning, rather than lecturing “by the book.” I would become a teacher for the piece of mind that there is someone else out there teaching students to think critically and develop concepts into ideas and projects he or she can be proud of. My hope is that this way of thinking will stay with the student in classrooms outisde of my own. It is my experience that connecting pieces of information from different disciplines helps create a well-rounded and more coherent wealth of knowledge.
I would become an art teacher to ensure that the rapidly de-emphasized Arts programs in public schools do not disappear. I feel I owe that to my predecessors and successors who have and will strive for the same goal.
After having been in a learning environment practically all of my life, I imagine myself being connected to the schools, in some way or another, for the rest of it. I rest easy knowing that I will never be the only teacher in the classroom.
So I am pretty happy with how that turned out, especially considering that I was very frustrated with it last night. I have little hope for the eventual merits of this class.
We don't have tests, but we do have 14 one-page essays to complete over the course of the semester (and 2 three-page essays). Our first essay is due this afternoon - I started it early yesterday evening, and did not finish it until this morning. After answering questions like "Here are the lyrics to the Beatle's "Strawberry Fields." After listening to the song several times and pondering its messages-both discursive and aesthetic--write a brief essay on how this song both reflects and rejects key themes in this course. If you think another song is worth citing in support or contrast, include it in your essay," [thanks Bud Gerber] you can imagine my dismay upon reading this question:
Why would you or others go into the teaching profession?
I started getting sick to my stomach imagining the "kitties and hearts" essays that he would be expecting. I was stumped.
My original first two sentences were: "Are you seriously asking me this question right now? I would go into the teaching profession to decrease the number of teachers who ask questions that provoke no critical thinking or exploration."
That sentiment developed into a full page essay (single spaced, weird huh?), and here it is:
I have a strong premonition that the reasons I have for going into the teaching profession are different reasons than those of “Others.” I like to avoid speaking for Others whenever possible, and I could not possibly name the multitude of reasons Others have for becoming teachers without making rash generalizations and (probably unfair) assumptions. That said, I will continue this brief essay by stating my own goals rather than listing things about Others that may or may not be true.
I love school. I love learning, I love reading, I love talking to people about their experiences, and I love listening to and seeing the crazy and wonderful things that come out of peoples’ heads. I love being surrounded by people with ideas, people who inspire and become inspired. I love to think and explore, and to encourage others to do the same.
I love the moment when someone “gets it.”
Based on these basic satisfactions and some previous experience, I can only assume that I would actually enjoy being a teacher. I would especially enjoy being an art teacher. As a student, the art classroom for me has always been a place of meditation. It has consistently been the only place at school that I can sit down and think, relax, and let my mind and body work together. In a shared art space, ideas are constantly bouncing around - out of peoples’ heads, and off the walls. If “Ideas” could be visualized as tangible objects, they would be constantly moving - not just around, but over, under, and through; They’d by colliding with other Ideas, combining, separating, multiplying. My job as an art teacher will be to guide students in grasping the Ideas that dynamically surround them at all times.
As an art teacher I will draw information from various other disciplines to make learning new concepts and pieces of art history easier to understand. I will guide and facilitate learning, rather than lecturing “by the book.” I would become a teacher for the piece of mind that there is someone else out there teaching students to think critically and develop concepts into ideas and projects he or she can be proud of. My hope is that this way of thinking will stay with the student in classrooms outisde of my own. It is my experience that connecting pieces of information from different disciplines helps create a well-rounded and more coherent wealth of knowledge.
I would become an art teacher to ensure that the rapidly de-emphasized Arts programs in public schools do not disappear. I feel I owe that to my predecessors and successors who have and will strive for the same goal.
After having been in a learning environment practically all of my life, I imagine myself being connected to the schools, in some way or another, for the rest of it. I rest easy knowing that I will never be the only teacher in the classroom.
So I am pretty happy with how that turned out, especially considering that I was very frustrated with it last night. I have little hope for the eventual merits of this class.