The Tone of Teaching by Max van Manen

Author:Max van Manen [Manen, Max van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Research
ISBN: 9781315416953
Google: Ja1mDAAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

The Pedagogical Significance of Discipline

To cultivate our pedagogical thoughtfulness and tact we need to reflect on the significance of "discipline." Discipline is not just the measure of order in our classroom. Discipline is the measure of our own orientation to order. Or rather, discipline is a way of talking about what matters to a person, how a person is oriented and stands in life. The roots of the word "discipline" refer to "following, learning, and teaching." A disciple is one who can follow a great teacher or a great example. The word docere (to lecture) is also related to discipline.

A disciplined person is prepared to learn and to be influenced toward "order." So the teacher needs discipline as much as the student does. Without discipline, a willingness to learn, there is no point in the idea or existence of school. To create discipline in students, or in oneself, is to create conditions for real learning. That is why it is often said that true discipline in the classroom cannot be separated from what is being taught or learned.

The deeper meaning of "discipline" has little to do with the application of punishment, or with authoritarian rule.

In "The Star Thrower," the late Loren Eiseley, professor of anthropology and the history of science, recounts an experience that is about the difference that discipline makes. Eiseley is walking at an ocean beach. There are people collecting shells and starfish that the receding waters have strewn along the shoreline. As he walks past the boiling pots of the shell collectors and the starfish gatherers, Eiseley notices a lone figure in the far distance. A man is gazing fixedly at something in the sand. Eventually he stoops and flings an object beyond the breaking surf.

When Eiseley finally gets near, he sees die man stoop again. In a pool of sand and silt a starfish has thrust its arms up stiffly and is holding its body away from the stifling mud. With a quick, yet gentle movement the man picks it up and spins it far out into the sea. "It may live," he says to Eiseley. Eiseley is a bit embarrassed. He notices that no other people have ventured so far down the beach. "Do you collect?" he asks. And while gesturing at the threatened life lying on the shore, the man says softly, "Only like this. And only for the living."

What Eiseley points out with this story is that the essence of the discipline of science is not simply collecting and classifying nature for the worldly uses of humans. To be truly disciplined is to be a "thrower." The one who saves and restores. The one who labours to understand the nature of nature, for the sake of the natural, for the uses of life. The star thrower he describes is possessed by a passion—the passion of a knowledge that is disciplined, that requires obedience and responsibility. Here "obedience" means being able to listen to what speaks or to what is being said. And to be able to hear "stars", one must love their nature.

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