After reading Berlin's article and participating in our class discussion, I began to wonder if I have any hidden ideologies. I also began to think about the ideologies of my previous teachers and professors. Like I mentioned in class, I had a high school history teacher that linked every lesson to socialism. I also had a professor for a survey of early American literature (a 3000-level course) who only discussed Thoreau's writings and her personal views on life. In the first example, although it at times became boring to continue discussing socialism, this teacher's ideologies did not have a negative affect on his teaching. He was actually the best teacher I had in high school. His views did not limit his teaching, as I actually learned more in that class than I did in all of my college history courses put together. Instead, his strong beliefs showed him to be a passionate person and therefore an engaging educator. However, in the other example, this professor was definitely the worst professor I had during my undergrad. She was a very intelligent and well educated woman but for some reason she did not feel the need to teach us. Her classes were 100% lecturing with 50% of that dedicated to her talking about herself and the other 50% talking about how we should live our lives like Thoreau (she actually suggested we all buy a cabin in the middle of the woods). In this case this professor's ideologies hindered her from teaching us the literature we wanted to learn. It was an intro class for only English majors and to this day I feel inadequate in my knowledge of early American literature.
Both of these teacher's ideologies were very obvious; however, it made me wonder if I have any ideologies that even I am not aware exist. Based on my blog post a few weeks ago on my teaching philosophy, it seems that I value critical thinking, organization, universal errors and individuality. I do believe all of these are important but I am sure that I have other ideologies as well. For example, I think that the English classroom is the perfect place to discuss social and political issues, especially controversial ones. Berlin gives an example of this when he states that in the sixties and seventies "the writing classroom became one of the public arenas for considering such strongly contested issues as Vietnam, civil rights, and economic equality" (667). I think one of the reasons why I value discussions like these is because they force the students to think critically. Of course, it is important to not venture too far and become like that professor I had. We can encourage our students to have these kinds of discussions but we must keep the focus of them directed to our teaching goals, be they in writing, reading or both.
This is something I've wondered about, too. I value my ideologies and think they will help my future students, but I hope I never become one of those professors my students roll their eyes at because my ideologies are so obvious or something. I suppose I won't know how to properly balance things until I'm actually in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteReally nice to see you're trying on ideas for size, trying to find immediately applicable results. Yes, clearly, you've experienced it. Of course, many of us are still inadequate in early American literature. What we value and where we got our values can be deeply entrenched. There's nothing wrong with that--but we must know the impact. What is gained, what is lost? Nice thinking here, hlwtraveler.
ReplyDeleteCherish your ideologies, but just like most things it good to keep it close so it doesn't get tarnished and dirty. To the students part of their job is to read the teacher and find these ideologies, and it is our job as a teacher to express them in whatever way possible. I prefer to have more hidden approach, but I have seen the opposite work as well.
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