My teaching philosophy, week 2

How do I take what I have read this week and synthesize into some concept that can lead to a tangible, applicable philosophy? I think that I must do what scholars have done for generations before me – I’ll take what I like and pretend like didn’t see the rest. I don’t think that I can, or that I should, take every piece of these articles and try to squeeze them into my own thoughts. I can take bits and pieces that I found from each of these articles and apply them to my own beliefs. So, that is what I am going to do. I will take the “sound bytes” that stuck out and try and connect the dots between them.

Fulkerson states that one problem with modern composition instruction is that instructors, “may expect students to produce arguments but fail to share that expectation with students.” I have to be aware of what my own expectations are, and also how clearly I have expressed these expectations to my students. If I am not clear with them, they cannot be clear with me. If I expect them to write well, then I must first be able to demonstrate to them what “well” means.
Schultz discusses the need for teachers to be aware of what methods and practices are going to be most useful for their students, and not stay entrenched in those they are most familiar with. I must be willing to look outside of the accepted trends in order to see what is really happening in the world. Shultz suggests that, “new varieties of life are constantly being created in the margins through unanticipated, uncontrolled, and unplanned cross-pollination and intermingling.” As a teacher, I have to be willing to learn.

The point that I want to take from Williams is not one of his main focuses. During his discussion of criticism, he makes the statement that, “there are innumerable other stories that one would have to tell to get anywhere near to telling a comprehensive history.” This is a point that I feel very strongly about, not in terms of the story of criticism, but in other areas of study. I am robbing my students if I do not share with them as diverse a view of the world as possible. If I continue to repeat a Western-centered focus on the world, I am leaving out an enormous section of history. I need to learn and share as many divergent views of the world as I can.

Bishop talks about her role as an instructor of composition. Although she spends a good portion of the article discussing the inequities in composition in the college setting, I think she makes a vital point that can apply to the high school as well. She describes them as, “a dedicated minority by choice: as agents instead of those acted upon.” I can either accept the role that I have chosen as an educator, or I can embrace it and revel in it. I can choose to focus on the things that I cannot change- administration, testing, schedules - or I can choose to use what I am given and provide everything that I do have control over for the use of my students.

Although I need to be willing to use what I am given, as opposed to letting what I lack hinder me, there does come a point when we as educators must be willing to stand in the face of those who are in control and say “this is wrong.” Popken’s article serves as an example of an educator who was not willing to let himself, as well as his students, suffer as a result of an ignorant system of control. Some decisions must be spoken out against, no matter the cost. I cannot serve my students by blindly going along with a system that I feel is causing them great harm. They are not getting what they need form the system, or from me, if there are structures in place that cause a continuous disheartening of me the teacher. I must be willing to take a stand and say, “I can put no heart into my work till something is done to relieve [it].”

My final lesson comes from Stewart and his discussion of the trends in modern composition instruction. He explores the way that teachers become mired in the traditional models of composition and fail to see the living language around them. As an instructor, I have to be aware of the world that my students will be entering. I am doing them a great disservice if I only provide them with an explanation of the way the world of composition used to be, and not what it is or will be. Rather than focus on how my students fail to meet the expectations of years of compositional theory, I must be willing to demonstrate, “intelligent listening to the language which goes on around us all the time.”

While this is by no means a comprehensive philosophy, I feel that it does serve as a framework and a starting point to begin to focus in on the things I believe about education and filter out those things that I don’t agree with.