Reading through Brent’s blog was an odd but pleasantly short experience. If I wasn’t before, I am sure now that he is not to be trusted in any way or at any time. But aside from that, I found some gems that I liked among his ravings.
His criticism of most public service as “a vacation that had a lot of poor people in it” is, in my own memory, entirely justified. There’s something missing in some of the community service projects I have done1 that left me feeling—when all is said and done—a little bit empty and ineffective. But I haven’t felt this way so far in the Teacher Corps, though I did feel this way a bit as an intern. Brent, I think, offers an excellent point to explain why: teaching “presents the chance not simply to DO the job, but to make an art of it.” As an intern I was doing a job for an organization, and I left dissatisfied. As a teacher, so far, I am doing a job and striving to improve technique, to master the doing. The substance of it is not the checking off of tasks done, but the pursuit of a way.
Another gem is his post on State tests. It’s especially important for me, as a future English II teacher. He observes: “A state test doesn't simply mark the success or failure of one teacher, it marks the collective success or failure of a history of teachers. It must be conceded, there comes a point when the history surmounts the present teacher.” When considering the demand for a certain number of students to pass the standardized tests, every one of us knows that there is an element of niaiserie2 in public education. How much can one teacher do with students who have not met the standards for the past ten years of their academic careers? Why is one teacher’s job on the line? Brent’s comment points to an answer, which may be dissatisfying for some: that’s just the way humans treat history—as if there is an infinitude of small forces of human wills that, when integrated in a kind of calculus, amounts to significant events with singular agents, actions, and plots. So the last teacher in line had only so much impact on that student, but he represents the integration of the child’s whole education, the way that Napoleon represents the culmination of a multitude of European coincidences, and it all falls upon him. Whatever. It doesn’t matter if there’s an explanation for it. I just find the observation helpful as a preparation for inevitable frustrations. It is a bit consoling. The danger is to use it as an excuse. But at best it can be used as a check against pride, because it applies to successes just as much as failures.
My favorite post by Brent is titled “What makes an effective teacher?” The content of the post is one line: “a romantic moment between tommy and wanda bonds”—that is, Brent’s parents.
What did I take from Brent’s blog as a whole?
Humor is extremely important. And self-importance is extremely humorous.
φ
1 I hold my short-term work in India apart from the other projects. I did not leave there with the feelings of such disappointment, partly because evangelism has a quality to it that doesn’t fit the form of “community service.”
2 The French niaiserie is a mask for a string of obscenities followed immediately by the word stupidity.
[this is good]
I wish I had a nickel for everytime I'd been complimented on an odd but pleasantly shor--
wait. nevermind.
Your last line truly summed up my blog, Philip. I'm glad you got the point.
Rédigé par : bhbonds | mercredi 14 juillet 2010 à 20:49