{"id":4956,"date":"2015-02-14T23:53:47","date_gmt":"2015-02-14T23:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2015-02-15T16:27:10","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T16:27:10","slug":"waymarks-along-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2015\/02\/14\/waymarks-along-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Waymarks Along The Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chuck<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come with\u00a0a gift,\u201d said the pilgrim. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut what took you so long?\u201d asked the master.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe journey is\u00a0the gift,\u201d the pilgrim\u00a0replied.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cExcellent,\u201d said the master. \u201cKeep going.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Last autumn I walked across Spain on the Camino de Santiago<\/a>. Along the way, fellow pilgrims would ask, \u201cHow far are you going?\u201d and I\u2019d say, \u201cAs far as I can.\u201d I wasn\u2019t trying to be evasive. I really didn\u2019t know. Some days were easy and I\u2019d get farther than I\u2019d ever imagined I could. Other days were harder and I\u2019d not get very far at all. At night when someone would ask, \u201cHow far did you get?\u201d I\u2019d say, \u201cAs far as I could\u201d and I wasn\u2019t trying to be evasive. What I meant had more to do with what was happening inside me than it did with distance. I took each day one step at a time, and over the course of this journey, those steps added up.<\/p>\n

The destination was Santiago de Compostela, but walking the pilgrimage wasn\u2019t really about getting somewhere. It was about being open and present, learning whatever there was to learn, and staying on the path. That last part was easy as there were always waymarks along The Way. Just when I\u2019d start to think, \u201cI might be lost\u201d there\u2019d be a yellow arrow pointing up one path rather than down another.<\/p>\n

\"Chuck-0215-1\"<\/p>\n

Often, though, there were options. One waymark would point towards a more difficult, longer, and less traveled path. Another would indicate a path that was easier, shorter, and more generally traveled. I\u2019d stand at those crossroads and think, \u201cthis way or that way?\u201d knowing that the choice I made would effect how I\u2019d later answer the question \u201chow far did you get?\u201d On the Camino, I took both kinds of paths and enjoyed it all. Not surprisingly, though, it was following waymarks up the longer, harder, less traveled paths that got me farthest, changed me the most, and in the end brought me the most joy.<\/p>\n

This is exactly what my life working in education has been like, too. For more than thirty years I\u2019ve been following waymarks along the way, making decisions about whether to take the shorter, easier more traveled paths, or the longer, harder less traveled ways. Just like on the Camino, the waymarks leading up the more challenging paths through education have gotten me farthest, changed me most, and brought me the most joy. Here are ten of those waymarks from the journey. Think of these ten books as gifts of offering from along the way.<\/p>\n

Teaching As A Subversive Activity\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>– Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner wrote Teaching As A Subversive Activity<\/a> in 1969, it was news. It still is. This book is as valid an attack on lock-step teaching and unimaginative schooling now as it was when they first declared that, \u201cThere are trivial ways of studying language which have no connection with life, and these we need to clear out of our schools.\u201d One of the reasons this book has been reprinted as many times as it has over the years is that we haven\u2019t quite managed to do this \u2013yet. Perhaps not enough people have read it. I\u2019ve read this book a bunch of\u00a0times, and hanging by my door is a card on which I\u2019ve written these questions from the chapter entitled, \u201cSo what are you going to do now?\u201d<\/p>\n

What am I going to have my students do today?<\/p>\n

What is it good for?<\/p>\n

How do I know?<\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t read the book, try asking yourself those questions before you walk into class. Then ask the same questions of yourself when you finish teaching at the end of a day but leave the words have my students <\/em>out of the first question. Make a practice of this. See what happens.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on these questions before teaching a class, writing an activity, or deciding how to spend an afternoon has helped me to rethink the way I teach, the activities I write, the reasons I teach, and the way I live. Not bad for a book I got for less than a US dollar 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

On Becoming A Person<\/em><\/strong> – Carl Rogers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roger\u2019s beautiful book<\/a> opens with these words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI speak as a person, from a context of personal experience and personal learnings\u201d<\/p>\n

To offer yourself, as you are, to a group of learners is the greatest gift you can offer them. This is at the center of Roger\u2019s work and at the core of what I believe about authentic teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

For me, being a teacher means constantly working to become who I am while openly sharing that journey with others. My experience has been that the more I offer who I am on any particular day, the more likely it is that others will do the same. Under these conditions, real learning and teaching become more possible.<\/p>\n

This is not an easy thing to do, and so it\u2019s only right that On Becoming A Person<\/em> is not easy reading. It asks questions like: \u201cWhat is the meaning of personal growth? Under what conditions is growth possible? What is creativity and how can it be fostered? How can one person truly help another? Is it really possible to teach anyone anything?\u201d Rogers grounds his work in a lifetime of practicing psychology and teaching to share the answers he\u2019s arrived at. In the process of reading, you\u2019ll likely discover your own.<\/p>\n

Still, \u00a0be careful. Not too long ago, a friend suggested that it is the educators who most strongly believe that teaching is a calling and not just a skill-set who end up working their way right out of teaching. My own experience speaks to this, and Rogers provides a good example of how it happens when he writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience has been that I cannot teach another person how to teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that anything which can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential, and has little or no significant influence on behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI realize increasingly that I am only interested in learnings which significantly influence behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have come to feel that the only learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch self-discovered learning cannot be directly communicated to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a consequence of the above, I have lost interest in being a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I\u2019ve certainly felt the frustration Rogers feels, I haven\u2019t reached that last step and don\u2019t think I ever will \u2014 but perhaps this is because I\u2019m alive and working at a time full of interesting alternative ways of thinking about teaching and learning that Rogers didn\u2019t live to see. Yet,\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m pretty sure that the work Rogers did helped us develop those alternative ways of thinking about\u00a0teaching and learning. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with his work, remedy that.<\/p>\n

A Place To Stand: Essays for Educators in Troubled Times \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>– Mark Clarke<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Like many teachers, you might be experimenting with non-traditional ways of teaching. In Clarke\u2019s words you\u2019re \u201ca change agent\u201d promoting not just change in your learners as you create conditions that make autonomous learning more likely. You\u2019re also promoting change in the way things are done. Fantastic!<\/p>\n

Be ready, though. People are going to notice, and not all of these people are going to be happy. I know this from hard experience. Reading Clarke’s book<\/a> has saved my career more than once. If you\u2019re doing non-traditional things in your classroom that some might consider a threat to the status quo, get this book and take the following advice to heart:<\/p>\n

Invite others in to see what you\u2019re doing in class, but be sure to prepare these observers for what they\u2019re going to see. Then, as your students are huddled up around laptops gathering data, while others are in some other corner practicing their presentation, while still others are noisily doing something else all together, be ready to \u201chelp others see the structure and order of events and how these build upon each other toward a coherent experience for the learners.\u201d Then be ready to be accommodating.<\/p>\n

Sure, I\u2019ll get them to quiet down. Of course, we\u2019ll use the textbook sometimes. Yes, I\u2019ll make sure students learn what we\u2019ve all agreed needs to be covered. Then smile, make sure you do those things, and get back to work. Then, if those in power still don\u2019t get it and try to get you to tone things down, go find somewhere else to do the good work you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Rose Where Did You Get That Red? <\/em><\/strong>– Kenneth Koch<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThere are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it \u2013 which is what I wanted to be able to do\u201d wrote Kenneth Koch. Well, not only is that exactly what he did do, he also taught a generation of New York City school children to do it, too. Then, he wrote this wonderful book<\/a> about that experience so that any of us could carry on the good work he started. Whether you\u2019re interested in introducing your students to great poetry, want some ideas about how to get started on writing some great poetry of your own, or just want to hold something in your hands that is full of happiness, this book is for you.<\/p>\n

I Won\u2019t Learn From You and Other Thoughts On Creative Maladjustment<\/em><\/strong> – Herbert Kohl<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019ve all had students who have refused to learn whatever it is we set out to teach them. Perhaps, like me, you\u2019ve even been that student. Herbert Kohl\u2019s classic essay on actively not learning <\/em>suggests that such behavior is a conscious choice made by people who \u201cchoose to not learn from a system which they feel is oppressive or deadening.\u201d<\/p>\n

While these active refusers <\/em>might look like unmotivated failures, they\u2019re actually working tirelessly to maintain a strategy that they truly believe is essential to their survival in a situation that is out of their control, beyond the limits of their understanding, and perhaps even a threat to their identity. In some cases they could be right.<\/p>\n

Ok, so now what? How can we re-channel that energy? Herbert Kohl has some good suggestions that have helped me numerous times over the years \u2014 both as a teacher working with such students and as a learner who has found himself in such situations. The three other essays in the book<\/a> are equally brilliant. My favorite is The Tattooed Man: Confessions of A Hopemonger<\/em>. Reading it\u00a0will make you proud you\u2019re a teacher and thankful that you\u2019ve had the chance to \u201cbecome an explorer with the goal of uncovering or helping your students uncover the gifts and strengths which can nurture them as they grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Children Fail <\/em><\/strong>– John Holt<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let Holt speak for himself, but as you read, replace the word children<\/em> with the word teachers<\/em> and the word learning<\/em> with teaching<\/em>. Watch what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools assume that children are not interested in learning and are not much good at it, that they will not learn unless made to, that they cannot learn unless shown how, and that the way to make them learn is to divide up the prescribed material into a sequence of tiny tasks to be mastered one at a time, each with its appropriate \u2018morsel\u2019 and \u2018shock.\u2019 And when this method doesn\u2019t work, the schools assume there is something wrong with the children \u2014 something they must try to diagnose and treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe who believe that children want to learn about the world, are good at it, and can be trusted to do it with very little adult coercion or interference, are probably no more than one percent of the population, if that \u2026 My work is to help it grow. \u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my work, too, and since you\u2019ve read this far, it\u2019s probably your work, too, and so you might want to read this book<\/a> if you haven\u2019t yet. The good news is, we\u2019re no longer the one percent. We\u2019re a movement whose members do not quite make up a majority yet, but we\u2019ll get there in my lifetime. I\u2019m sure of it.<\/p>\n

Breaking Rules <\/em><\/strong>– John F. Fanselow<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly by engaging in the generation and exploration of alternatives will we be able to see. And then we will see that we must continue to look.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look carefully until you just might be seeing what\u2019s really <\/em>there and what\u2019s really <\/em>going on. Describe that in as much detail as possible. Then change something and look some more. What\u2019s happening now? How is it different? Now describe this<\/em> in as much detail as possible. Avoid making judgments and stay as far as you can from words like bad, worse, good, better, <\/em>and best. <\/em>Now, change something else. Look again. Soon you\u2019ll realize that nothing is the way you think it is, that few things are permanent, and that you have the power to change almost anything. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned from this book<\/a> and that’s led me into a way of life I try everyday to live, sometimes fail miserably at, and so what to do? Try again.<\/p>\n

We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change<\/em><\/strong> – Paolo Freire<\/strong><\/p>\n

While everything that Freire wrote has had a big influence on how I think about teaching, learning, and schooling, this book<\/a> is the one which includes these lines:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Read that again. Say it out loud. You\u00a0are<\/em> an artist. So is everyone else.<\/p>\n

Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>– Parker Palmer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>This is a wonderful little volume<\/a> that is often overlooked even by teachers who\u2019ve fallen in love with Palmer\u2019s classic The Courage To Teach. <\/em>It\u2019s in this book that Palmer writes \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must come together in ways that respect the solitude of the soul, that avoid the unconscious violence we do when we try to save each other, that evoke our capacity to hold another life without dishonoring its mystery, never trying to coerce the other into meeting our own needs \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Say what? Well, he almost echoes Freire, doesn\u2019t he? Simply said: we\u2019re not here to save anyone, shape anyone, or even change anyone, and certainly not to coerce anyone into fulfilling our own need for personal fulfillment, professional acceptance, love, power, control or whatever. “Oh, I\u2019ve never done anything like that and never would,” you say, and I\u2019ll say the same thing. But let\u2019s be honest. We\u2019re human. Writers like Parker Palmer help us more fully accept that fact.<\/p>\n

Teaching to Transgress: Education as The Practice of Freedom\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>– Bell Hooks<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like what Bell Hooks says here in this powerful book<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when personal experience keeps us from reaching the mountain<\/em> top and so we let it go because the weight of it is too heavy. And sometimes the mountaintop is difficult to reach with all our resources, factual and confessional, so we are just there, collectively grasping, feeling the limitations of knowledge, longing together, yearning for a way to reach that highest point. Even this yearning is a way to know<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, even that collective yearning of ours to keep improving, even that constant longing to be better teachers -even when the way is hard – is a way to know. We\u2019ll never reach the mountaintop but we\u2019ll never stop trying, will we? No, we won\u2019t, and we won\u2019t choose the easier paths either. The journey is the gift. Keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 Basho<\/em><\/p>\n

An <\/em>earlier version<\/em><\/a> of this post appeared as part <\/em>IATEFL TDSig<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Ten Books series. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve come with\u00a0a gift,\u201d said the pilgrim. \u201cBut what took you so long?\u201d asked the master. \u201cThe journey is\u00a0the gift,\u201d the pilgrim\u00a0replied. \u201cExcellent,\u201d said the master. \u201cKeep going.\u201d Last autumn I walked across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. Along the way, fellow pilgrims would ask, \u201cHow far are you going?\u201d and I\u2019d say, \u201cAs … Continue reading Waymarks Along The Way<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journeys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}