Teaching:
Learning Twice, Laughing Much, and Fighting the Culture
Published in Marietta(GA) Daily Journal, 12/10/17
Several
years ago on the first day of the semester, I walked into a college English
classroom to find everyone sitting quietly, waiting to see what their teacher
looked like.
Detecting
their nervousness, I decided to have some fun playing a role I had played often. Closing the door behind me, and trying to
channel General George Patton, I surveyed the room without comment, looking
left and right, attempting to show displeasure.
Within seconds, I barked, “RULE Number 1: BE AFRAID!”
It
worked. Again. Fear shrouded the faces of the entire class,
even the older, “non-traditional” students who were entering college for the
first time as full blown adults. Since
I’m no George Patton and knew that the class would be held in their fearful
state for only a few minutes more, I prepared to sound forth Rule Number 2.
However,
before I could trumpet “RULE Number 2: Be VERY Afraid!” a young lady on the
front row caught on to me, smiled, and hid her face. There I stood, wanting so much to continue
the fun with yet another “rule,” but I was totally thwarted by the savvy young
lady who had found me out. Seeing that
the front row young lady was heaving in quiet laughter, the entire class began
to laugh also, relieved that I was not a classroom George Patton. I gave up, broke character, laughed with the
class, and got down to business.
Such joy is one of the
reasons I wish every adult could experience teaching. Specifically, I’m referring to 16 to 19 year
olds, or high school juniors to college sophomores. I’ve no doubt that teaching children and
younger teens is rewarding, but since my own experience has been with older
high school and younger college students, that is the only age group about
which I have anything to say.
To teach is to learn
twice. If you think you know something
well, teach it and you will know it better.
Teaching can become your teacher.
But neither the joy nor
the twice learning is the chief reason all adults could benefit from
teaching. The chief reason is that
teaching can fast anchor one to reality.
It allows (forces actually) one to get a good grip on the pulse of the times
all because you spend your days with youths.
Oh, the faces of
innocence and need into which teachers peer daily. Need brought about not just by the lack of
basic knowledge that students should already have, but by the conditioning that
has shaped youth and created a blur that blinds them to the adult world.
The blur is a
generational cataract. It was created by
the emergence of teen culture which in turn created a chasm between teens and
adults. It prevents teens from seeing
and understanding what it means to be an adult, to be self-directed. It prevents an understanding of adult
responsibility and what it entails.
The causes of this blur
pre-date the current Age of Snowflakes (soft, easily offended youths) for which
our universities are largely responsible.
Today’s universities are coddling their students, shielding them from
opposing points of view and creating a culture that is perpetually adolescent.
The word “teenager”
first appeared in 1941 in Popular Science magazine. It was grabbed by marketers and advertisers who
saw its potential and commenced to create “the teenager” in their own
image. World War II stymied the new teen
culture’s advancement, but the rock and roll of the 50’s and the protest spirit
of the 60’s pushed it to its present reality.
For 6 decades the teenage
mystique has ruled. Adults have acquiesced
to it, adopting its language, dress, music, and tastes. Shabby dress and
general casualness are the result. The blur, the distance between youth and adulthood,
is of our own making. Recognizing this
distance, younger teachers are prone to believe they must “reach” teenagers
before they can teach them. “Reaching”
often means trying to be a pal instead of an adult leader.
Action is needed to
loosen teen culture’s grip. Re-instating
the military draft would help. An-18-year-old
male needs something hanging over his head.
In a positive, beneficial way, the draft would serve this purpose.
Teenagers
face a crazy, uncertain world. That’s
why they need some joy and encouragement as surely as they need discipline and
focus.
So
check out teaching. You’ll feel the love
and the vigor of youth, and you might be able to fix some problems that plague
the nation.
Roger Hines
12/6/17
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