If Nobody Ever Calls You Al, What You Might Do as a Second Rate Teacher

Last updated on: August 26, 2017 at 3:59 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

If Nobody Ever Calls You Al, What You Might Do as a Second Rate Teacher 2017-08-26T15:59:19-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If you cannot be the best, if nobody is ever going to call you Al, then there is another way. It is not a bad way and there are bad ways, but it is a lesser way. If you can be the best, be the best, but if you cannot, then here is what you can do. But before we admit that we cannot take the high road, we must stop and refuse to take the road to hell, the path nobody should take, paved with the good intentions of those who would do evil that good may come.

Recall at all costs this truth: the tyrant, the guru in the classroom, has no virtue. The tyrant has an end in mind, yet even a good end forced on a student by trickery or rhetoric is foul. It makes the dialectic false. Imagine loving a person and seeking her, but lying and manipulating only to win and gain her “love.” There is no love there, no goodness, just beauty twisted, ruined, spoilt, and made ugly.

Where there is deceit, there is no education. Where there is compulsion, there is no love.

To be Al, the best dialectical teacher, is hard and beyond most of us. Sometimes we must take the lesser road, still a good road, because of our limitations, but often it is because of limits from the outside. We do not have the time we need. Students are constrained (God save us!) by the economy or the culture from deep learning. Good teachers do the best they can. Sometimes we cannot be Al, because nobody will give us the space to be the teacher we should be.

The best teacher knows the text deeply, has all the time there is, and refuses any compromise. There is a lower way, one that refuses to be the guru, refuses to manipulate a session, but also lives in limits. The administrators have limited the budget or the message. God grant us the ability to see the truth of ourselves, mostly we take the lower way because it is the best we can do.

I am blessed with a Board that has allowed us to build a real college and school. The limits, for the first time in my life, are my own and whatever the students have brought from the culture. This is a joy, but it also lets me recognize that my limits are my limits. They have never been anybody’s fault.

The “lower way” is teaching with technique. The text is not quite trusted to do the job alone, because the teacher lacks the faith that the deepest scholar has in the book. I am a man of the lesser way.

What do I do?

I begin with a question. The question is the most important part of the class. A good question is authentic: the topic is alive to students and to me. A better question is open ended, there is no obvious answer, but it is not so vague that it could not be answered. Finally, a good question is relevant. Most of all the question is relevant to the text and secondarily to the student and the tutor. We will be changed by the answer, because we want the the truth and dare to believe that a great text with a great discussion can show us some truth.

Sometimes the question works and nothing else is needed. The text and the students do most of the work. In that case, hurrah! You can relax and wait until the end of of class. Yet sometimes the best question is the wrong question for that group of students and nothing sparks . . . and so I bring about ten questions with me. I try again.

That fails at times.

Then one does what one can. Listen. Look and hear what students are saying and let the text shape a question based on what they are saying and not what you think. Form a new question based on this need.

Here is a warning. People will think that I am saying to find a felt need and build on it. That is the way of the tyrant or guru. No. No. Again no. The text will find a deeper need than we need if it is great book. How could this be? We, mostly, do not know ourselves. Great books help us do that basic task and better help us to know the Good, Truth, and Beauty.

Instead, find the question that comes from the text and not from any individual. The needs are particular to individuals, but the text is common to the class. As a result, one can find a common question based on our common ignorance of the text. If the book is a great one, I have discovered that this common question may not deal with our felt needs, but will deal with our real need!

Finally, the class will end with an attempt to pull it all together. How then should we live? What comes of this? I hate discussion that is mindless edutainment or worse, pompous smart person chatter to prove our social status. A good discussion risks change: I will live based on what we have learned, whatever it is.

God help me, but this lower way is a good way. It is the way I must go and though the better teachers may get there first, we will get there in the end if we reject tyranny and trust the dialectic!

Education

Previous Post

August 25, 2017

If You Wish to Be Called Al, Then Teach This Way

Next Post

August 27, 2017 Endless Worry or Blissful Ignorance: Living in the Storm

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What special power did Joseph have?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Building altars Writing scrolls Interpreting dreams Fighting giants

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »