To the editor:
As many of my former teachers can attest, they did little teaching of me. I make this statement not to gloat or glory in my own ability. Rather it was the fact that I had some great teachers. They would often light the fuse and step back to see what happened. Hopefully they are getting much pleasure and laughter at my expense.
One hallmark of a great teacher is the ability to improvise on a moment. In my own teaching I have used this many times to show my students how important it is to comprehend how new information is studied, learned, and used. Too often I am faced with students who have no idea what they should be learning or why.
In one class I had a student who made it quite clear he was bored. It is not that he did not listen, he was attentive. If you should teach in this country, you will encounter the sponge students. They absorb everything that you say even though it appears that they are not making notes or doing as well as they might. I wanted to send the message that it was important to keep some bits of new information. It was a struggle. I could easily have taken the draconian step of demanding that all the students write down what I said. Pomposity at its finest!
In middle November, the Foreign Language School was being given an inspection by one of the Educational offices from Beijing. Most of you are familiar with the visit by a Chief of Section. He sticks his shoulder boards through the door, says, “Nice Job!” and then leaves. While the visit was more serious than that, it still had all those trappings. The groundskeepers had decorated the outside of the entrance with large pots of poinsettias. Taking a break between classes I strolled around the courtyard in front of the building. Inspiration strikes at the most opportune moments.
For most of the past dozen years or so I lived and worked in Asheville, N.C. My first job had me commuting to Spartanburg, and Greenville, S.C. Greenville is the hometown of Joel Poinsett, a diplomat and scientist of the late 19th century who discovered and cultivated the plant that bears his name. As a photojournalist I often had the task of interviewing an expert or two on the subject of the Christmas Flower. In South and North Carolina we take our connections to the past very seriously!
I grabbed one of the plants and trotted up to my classroom. Plunking the potted plant down in the center of the podium I then began to give my students a totally different lesson on the history, vocabulary, culture, and science of a simple house plant. I told them about bracts, the development of a culture of the yuletide pleasantry, and how their own knowledge of English, as limited as it was could help them learn new things. End of class! I warned my students that I would quiz them the next week. My chalkboard was drowning in white words. I can still hear the mental gasp!
The following week, stern faced I called for a quiz! Five questions. I then asked questions about the subject the previous week. The class was stunned when only one student was able to get three answers correct. Point made. I would later learn that the students were suitably stunned and yet, thrilled that they had been treated to a different type of lesson than they had had previously. More importantly, I had earned their respect.
This semester I am using their curiosity and skill at recitation to produce six of Shakespeare’s plays. With all their years of English, they have seldom been asked to apply the knowledge. What I am learning is that I know little about these plays. It is an exciting time. The excitement comes from watching them get confidence using a language that is as foreign to them as the Chinese I attempt to learn for my own self. Already I see some of their natural wit coming through. And more importantly I am learning the lessons that my own teachers had to learn. You can learn far more when you let your students teach you.
Orpheus Allison
Shanghai, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
