5/7/2008 6:47:00 AM
Letter; The Times 7 May
The real meaning of teaching
Sir, The Institute of Public Policy Research raises once more the question of what is a good teacher (May 5). Education was once described as a conversation between the wise adult who wishes to mediate society’s culture and knowledge and the young who need to increase their understanding of the world. Schooling is but one part of this process. However, it can defeat its own highest objectives if, as has been the case for some time, the curriculum is overloaded, schools subjected to endless targets and Ofsted inspectors forced to adopt narrow criteria. Outstanding teachers have always understood that the conversation between teacher and pupil, like all conversations, requires the flexibility of indirection and the recognition of a shared pursuit. That is why fine teaching is an art: it has techniques that need to be grasped and practised and, importantly, it has periods of aridity that only a fool would describe as failure. The conditions for such necessary edifying contact between pupil and teacher are not sustained easily. There are also many types of good teacher and it is the pupils, not always the schools, who know who they are. They usually share one characteristic — independence of mind. It is a quality they have to preserve in the teeth of most educational reform.
Simon McCarthy
London E5
General
E-mail a friend |
del.icio.us| Bookmark|
Permalink |
Comments
(0) |
Post RSS