Learning is not attained by chance

Abigail Adams (although tight lipped above) contends that 'Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence'. 

That contention is set up as an absolute - the 'not' and the 'must' indicate the polarities. But I don't think it's that easy.

I get what her intention is - students need some passion and application to learn something, but I can learn stuff without having that initial deliberateness she suggests.

For instance, I learn plenty of things by chance in my everyday interactions with students and staff at Hastings Boys' High School. All you have to be is awake to the possibilities and receptive to them when they come.

I am a Jedi, like my father before me (Luke Skywalker)

My initial reaction was to laugh when a Year 11 student said to me this week, "Sir, you're like the father I didn't know I needed".

But then I thought about it a few days later when I was reading a chapter from Star Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back. The essay was about filial piety and Anakin's fictional father/son relationship with Luke.

The authors on this filial piety: Parental figures typically serve as 'ready-made' exemplars since children typically admire their parents - if their parents exhibit noble and loving characteristics.

So, I guess for some students, teachers may be considered parental surrogates.

We often point to good role models amongst the student population, but maybe we seldon reflect on the role modelling that we present to our students.

While a student myself I had a full range of male role models. There were the sarcastic teachers I didn't like, the ones I was never sure about where I stood, the kindly uncle types (i.e. they were only a few years older than me), and the older gentlemen - many of whom seemed quite aloof.

Father figures though? Not that I can recall. 

Hence being taken aback somewhat when the student made that comment. Because of my references to the Pirate Code, I can kind of see where that feeling might come from.

It provides a structure, a moral code and a clear set of consequences that is noble in intent, and I care enough to enforce it. Maybe that's missing from the lives of some students.

All I can control is myself and just keep having a positive attitude (Rose Namajunas)

Students often ask me, "Who's your favourite student, sir?" and I truthfully answer, "That's like asking who's my favourite child?"

I don't have favourites - a student preferred to all other students, or a favourite child.

Of course, I do have students I like more than others. Those tend to be the ones who do their best to get better in class and outside of class; the ones who listen and act on advice; the ones who learn from the Pirate Code.

Of course, the corollary to this is that there are students I like less than others. Only natural. Those tend to be the ones who have to learn the hard way, who are really immature, who compromise the learner of others, and who don't learn from the Pirate Code.

That's different to having someone I favour above all others. Having a favourite implies favouritism - giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.

That would be troubling, and against my own Pirate Code. I aim to do the right thing, now, and teach all students to the best of my ability. Every day.

Have a vision. Be demanding (Colin Powell)

Photo by Anastasia Petrova on Unsplash

Much as Marcus Aurelius does in Meditations, I think Colin Powell is talking to himself here.

So - I take it that he is telling himself to have a vision and to be demanding. Demanding of himself.

Teachers get this. We have a vision. We demand a lot of ourselves. Every day.

That's partly why it's such a rewarding/ exhausting job.

Poetry is a form of display

Photo by ricardo frantz on Unsplash

Poetry is a form of display. The poet bird repeats vowels and consonants in order to widen his tail. Meter and counted syllables make up a peacock tail. The poem is a dance done for some being in the other world.

Robert Bly

You've got the power to know, you're indestructible, always believing, you are gold (Spandau Ballet)

Photo by Petr Vyšohlíd on Unsplash

This will come as no surprise to any teachers out there in the blogosphere, but the golden moments in teaching are rare.

Mostly teaching is hard work. Dealing with teenagers' motivation levels all day long, as I do, is hard work. Dealing with administrivia is hard work.

Not all the time, but most of the time.

That makes those breakthrough, golden moments all the sweeter.

As Robert Bly says in Iron John:

Sometimes the mentor or teacher, sitting with a student, slips into soul water and the tongue turns to gold.

Those are the moments that keep us going.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself (Galileo Galilei)

Galileo Galilei 1640

This post could centre on the unfortunate way women were excluded from so much thinking by men back in the day (the 17th century for Galileo), but it doesn't.

Instead, let's change it to a gender neutral - you cannot teach anyone anything; you can only help someone find it within themselves.

Then again, he may have just been talking about males, right?

Anyway, a good debate topic.

As I teacher I'd like to think I can teach someone something (a new skill perhaps), but I suspect Galileo is correct - the impulse/receptiveness must come from within.