I finished the list of my favorite novellas and sent it to John Madera, who will soon post it on his blog. He and I started talking a bit about teachers as tour guides instead of taskmasters. He said a lovely thing:
I’ve also often thought the teacher’s role should be as guide, someone not only familiar with the lay of the land, but in love with its every ebb and flood, rustle and hum, chirp and howl, aware not only of the pitfalls and traps, but of the most inspiring, beautiful, intimate, secluded spaces.
Of course, we teachers have to get everyone to use proper grammar and cite sources, and soon enough we get all caught up in talking about metaphors and frame stories and students are left wondering what the fuss is all about. This is more towards teaching lit, something I haven’t done in a few years, partly because I never could find the balance between pointing at the ebbs and rustles and teaching the proper use of the semicolon.
problems
Students in lit classes don’t always like the tour guide stuff, anyway. They look at you like, When are you getting to the point? as if we might get a little more satisfaction out of the work if Bartleby rolled up his sleeves and showed us how to repair an HVAC unit. And rightly so, in a way; there’s so much stuff to be learned. It’s hard to get to the leisure of art when there’s stuff afoot.
We had another excellent Five Things on Friday and hit the trifecta again: great music, great words, great visual art. Pictures will be up soon on the show’s site.
