Teaching is Power

When I decided to go back to school, my mother the guidance councilor questioned why English. She bemoaned (over and over and over) the grading of all the papers. My initial response was that you only have to grade what you assign, and I really love the freedom it enables you. The freedom to essential teach what you want- within the context of the classroom. I am ready to change the world... so I thought. This week's readings while strengthening this notion, has made me a bit afraid of a teacher's impact.

Last week Brufee through Trimbur wrote "How we teach is, is what we teach" (VV 464). This statement had a real impact on me, and it was only implying that education is not neutral. This weeks readings really drove home this notion on a much deeper level, indicating that what we teach can truly impact lives, more deeply than we may ever know. I love the idea of teaching students to think critically, (Berthoff and George) but how will topic choice affect them? Do I let them choose? Like Bizzell, in George, asks, "What is the legitimate authority of teachers, or any other orators?" (GT 108). I want to teach those shared values, that George discusses (GT 108), but how do we know if they are really all shared. I think they should be... but who am I?

Knowledge is Power

Just when I thought I was jaded enough to be realistic about how my first teaching experiences will be I read James Berlin's article Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class. Now, again, I have the feeling that I will be able to hand my students the world- as long as I can teach them to write.

I think everyone has had a teacher who made them feel like that (above). Just this week I had a teacher (yes college level, no not a professor) define a term, using the same term in addition to saying it was more than a different term that she had not defined, and had not planned on. When I asked her for an example of the undefined term in the definition she said that it wasn't important and we didn't need to know it. She got very flustered when I persisted, explaining my inability to fully comprehend the new term with out knowing the meaning of the words in its defenition, telling me she would tell me (only me) after class. I know there were others who wanted this level of comprehension as well. Ahhh the "[l]oveless, arrogant, hopeless, mistrustful, acritical (Shor (95) in Berlin 734) classroom.

How does this relate to writing and the readings?

"...a way of teaching is never innocent. Every pedagogy is imbricated in ideology, in a set of tacit assumptions about what is real, what is good, what is possible, and how power ought to be distributed" (Berlin 735).

The Link

I liked Emig's message about the connection between writing and learning. I never had to study for a test in HS, and it was a shock to me to have to learn how to for college (after my parents almost yanked me out for a ahhh...less then stellar first semester). I found that the method that worked best for me was rewriting my notes, and information from the texts. I would do it over and over again. Emig's exploration about enactive, iconic and symbolic learning (10) clarifies why this was effective for me. I love the concept of writng using the whole brain. Although, I am not certain where compostition comes into play with this article, and am looking forward to discussing it in class.