Guerrilla Education: Teaching From the Trenches (Part 5&6)
There aren’t many times that I enjoy a whole book. I can normally find a chapter or two that I think aren’t needed. I can find reasoning in sections that isn’t logical. The writing can also break down somewhere. There are plenty of reasons to critique books. Often, the books that I am critiquing are long dead, and they didn’t even have an editor. My critiques are for my own good, not for the good of the author. Coming to The Seven Laws of Teacher, I can’t think of anything to critique. I have just enjoyed it.
Again, I read it for the first time around 5 years ago, and I wasn’t a good reader. Something new that I noticed and appreciate is how the book is organized. I like that Gregory starts with the roles of the teacher and the student, giving the responsibility of both parties involved in the teaching process. He then proceeds to language and the progression of knowledge, how to communicate with the student and how to start with the knowledge that a student knows to get them to what they don’t. Finally, in law 5 and 6, he talks about the role of the teacher and the role of the student in the learning process.
The mind is an interesting thing. My grandmother is currently in the last days of her life here on earth as Alzheimer’s takes its toll on her. She is in her 80’s, she is saved, and she has lived a good life. She is being cared for by nurses and all of her children. This is a good home sending. Yet is it sad for my mom. She is losing her mom slowly, even though she is still there in the room with her. I saw my grandma at Christmas. I don’t think she knew who any of us were, but once she heard my name, she could place me with my name. One thing has stayed with her though as her mind has gone: song. My mom has been singing songs with her over the past several months because it is the one thing that my grandma really knows. My mom played some Frank Sinatra for her just the other day, and she called out, “It’s Frank!” She may not know her grandson, but she does know Frank. It’s quite funny. A sad thing though is that as of a few days ago, she had forgotten how to swallow, so she can no longer eat or really drink anything because the nurses are afraid she will end up choking. How can someone know who Frank Sinatra is yet forget how to swallow? It’s because parts of her brain are just no longer working the right way.
I bring this up because knowing how the brain works is helpful when it comes to teaching and learning. Gregory knows that experience and self-discovery are the best teachers. There is a reason that the school of hard knocks is such a thing. Because that is how lots of people truly learn. They have to learn through feeling the lesson, bumps, bruises, and all. Now, while physicality is helpful in the learning process, it may not be the best tool for a teacher to wield for his students. My father was spanked in school for disobeying, but that is now frowned upon by most institutions. To take you on a path of self-discovery, let’s do a little wandering in order to find the answer. Most people have been in cars, I am assuming you have been in one. When learning how to get somewhere new, let’s say Syracuse, is it best to be driven there or to drive there yourself? (Plato traveled between Athens and Syracuse during his life) To go one further, it is better to be told how to get there or to drive there yourself? Anyone would tell you that it is better to drive there yourself than to simply to told or to be driven there. Even the use of GPS has hindered some people from learning how to get anywhere. If the teacher is in the classroom, what can a teacher do in order to have the student drive themselves as much as possible?
In the world of thought, there are no physical things to run into or to see. There are only ideas that are in one’s head. The process that one goes through in order to get the thoughts in the head make all the difference though. I can explain to someone how Plato’s Forms work or I can ask a series of questions to help a person discover how Plato thought about the world. A lecture on the metaphysical structure of the ancient world might be exciting to a select few students, but I have found that most people would prefer to work through it for themselves rather than hearing one person bloviate.
Gregory is all about how a teacher is to work to awaken a student’s mind to the lesson and allow the student to learn for themselves everything that they can. Lectures are the worst thing for the classroom. The only thing that a teacher should tell a student are things that students cannot learn on their own. For the teacher, and from my experience, this is a hard thing to do. This goes back to the first law because in order for a teacher to be able to do this well and fully, the teacher must know the subject matter thoroughly. The teacher must be at the end of the path in order to call the student to the end.
If there is one calling, there must be one answering. This is the student’s roll in education. The student is to be active in the exercises, working to take the information that he is discovering and making it his own. He is walking down the path of life and is discovering a path that is all his own because no one else will experience it the same way that he is. The end goal will be the same but there should be different flavors to it.
In the classroom, the student in on the trail to find out whatever truth the teacher is putting in front of them. In their search for one truth, the student should discover other truths along the way. This is the nature of knowledge; it comes in packs. There is no truth in isolation. Rather, it is a connected network of things that fit together. This points back to the 3rd law.
As a teacher calls a student down the path of discovery, the goal is to make the student into their own explorer, setting them up to go out and find new paths to lead others down. This is the role and goal of all education, to set up the next generation to take over the job. Education is all about knowing what knowledge looks like, how to test it in order to see if there is truth in it, and then how to communicate it to those around you.
As truths are learned and connected, if they stem from the central path, they all should point back to the beginning. This all goes back to the center of education which is Christ. There are many trails, paths, and mountains that are all Christ’s that man can and should explore. A teacher is a guide to help others to learn how to learn so that we may all embark onto a greater journey to know Christ, the center, better. The student is the hiker, moving along the trail. They are both active positions. The journey and destination both matter. This is why an education can’t merely be telling, it has to be about showing and experience knowledge to grow deeper connections to the truth and to see how it is all connected under Christ.
Gregory, John Milton. The Seven Laws of Teaching. Veritas Press, 2004.