Some thoughts on teaching (redux)
which were occasioned by a recent conversation where i was asked if I thought teaching more of an art rather than a science. I responded that the question was a false frame, and was asked to explain.
My explanation comes in part from my background and formal education in music.
I think what we are seeing in education is neither art nor science, but the attempt to turn education into an engineering problem. In engineering, it is of course important to have rigorous standards. In manufacturing the ideal of exactly the same interchangeable parts is an important component of mass production, which provides consistency, and may even save on cost.
But students are not, and should not be, widgets or other manufactured outputs. They are absolutely unique
IA-04 Vilsack v King - a quick update
Christie Vilsack had small fundraising get-together in DC on Wed evening, upstairs at the Mad Hatter on Connecticut Avenue. About 40 people gathered to see the candidate, probably most with some prior Iowa connections - in my case, a friendship with the Vilsacks going back to 2005. The crowd was predominantly younger (at least compared to this sixty-plus denizen) and quite enthusiatic. People were encouraged to sign up for ongoing contributions, and to use their social networks to encourage friends, even those without Iowa
the affirmation of the Daily Kos community
is something I have experienced many times. Perhaps it was Meteor Blades sending me an email encouraging me to keep at it when I was struggling to find my voice. It was Las Vegas in 2006, the reaction (which as a shy person I was not sure how to handle) when I said I was teacherken. It has been the emails from people thanking me for things I have written, or the wonderful comments on my posts, where people get inspired to take an idea I have offered and take it further.
Perhaps my greatest experience of this came in the Spring of 2010, when I offered a diary titled simply Some new about me . . . where I explained to the community something I had known for a month - that I was a winner of the Washington Post Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award. It was not just the more than 1500