Disobedient Teaching by Ings Welby

Author:Ings, Welby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Otago University Press

the passionate professional

It has always seemed strange to me that we might conceive of an education system that guards against emotion. When I think about it, most of us consider that our greatest lessons have been learnt through their emotional impact. On a social level we’ve discovered things like ‘Some love doesn’t last forever’, and on an intellectual level ‘Water expands when it freezes and that’s why my plumbing is wrecked.’ We learn these things because we are directly affected by them.

In a climate of curriculum safety it’s not hard to understand why students go through adolescence having trouble relating to what is taught. In a media-saturated world that delivers most of its information in emotional packages, people have become used to associating feelings with what they absorb. Whether it is the implications of hegemony or the burial of a dead cat, emotional and sensory stimulation are powerful ways of making links between the world of the learner and the information they absorb.

Although schools operate on a performance-based, production­-oriented model, it is the personal relationships inside them that cause education to triumph. We know that people will work well with someone they like. Showing feelings doesn’t make us vulnerable as teachers; it makes us complete. It is much easier to attack an emotionless cut-out than it is to attack someone you know. That’s why wars reduce enemies to inhuman objects, and that’s why if we model ourselves on something inhuman we can expect inhumane responses. It is by being ourselves that we become accessible.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.