Teaching and Learning

In my last semester of college. I've taken 4 classes every semester I've been in college, and had dozens of teachers in high school. Out of the over 50 teachers I have had the (dis)pleasure of sitting in a classroom with, only a handful have truly seemed to teach, rather than lecture.

My psychology of language class has potential--speech and communication are huge, and I've always been interested in the differences between different speakers of language and why it all matters. However: my professor is not actually teaching me anything at all. She is reading from her slides, talking, but not teaching. The information on her slides is only applicable to me if I understand why it's important--what about my body of knowledge will change as a result of this class? It's the same reason I didn't care about calculus until engineering friends in college helped me see the relationship to real-life issues, and not just problem sets.

Don't get me wrong: I love learning. But that's just it. I love learning, not listening to lectures. I can read lectures for myself. What I want is a teacher who interacts and reacts with the class, helps to illuminate some part of the world in a manner that I can't for myself. Whether that's the ability to veer off of the curriculum if the opportunity presents, using relevant examples from the world at large or personal experience, or truly engaging with students so that we feel enabled to ask three-dimensional questions that help us take anything beyond fact away from the class experience.

I've had a few professors and teachers whose passion, flexibility, and connection to students have really opened up topics and ideas to me, or enabled me to delve further into a subject beyond taking down lecture notes. Urban politics, political communications, AP US History: all things I maintain a solid interest in. The professors in these classes took the actual students into consideration, asked for our participation, input, and questions, and took it upon themselves to go into details, use anecdotes, relate concepts to real life, and make subjects realistic.

Teaching is like being a good employer in many respects: you can get more out of those "beneath" you if you treat them like a valuable component of the system/process, rather than tossing words and orders into empty space without any regard to comprehension.

Skipping to a conclusion--I think these are many of the reasons I would consider teaching, as well as one day being a good employer. Learning and working aren't just means to the end--they are inherent parts of life and experience, and deserve to be treated as such. I don't want to be force-fed information like an goose whose liver will be used for pate. I want to taste my meal, savor it. Maybe even come back for more next time.