Bob Patrick sent this email. It describes the change we are now in regarding what it means to even be a teacher:
Pondering some learning experiences I have had over the years in areas outside of language study—let’s just say, generally, in “the arts” of various kinds. I find that our walking around, conscious, ego driven brains, as wonderful as they are, can really get in the way. People who will have nothing to do with “the arts”, or who become immediately uncomfortable with even the idea of trying one of “the arts” is also just like the traditional language teacher who will not hear of any approach that is not about “the grammar”, or “the skills” or “the workbook” or . . . you know.
Still, even on the Latin Best Practices list, I will have individuals, and often the SAME individuals, infer that I don’t teach grammar or that TPRS/CI “has no grammar”. When I explain that we do teach grammar, but as part of the CI, in pop up moments, you can see them glaze over. They not only have not heard. They cannot imagine. It’s not like much of anything else in their lives. They cannot imagine engaging in “the arts”, and they cannot imagine teaching a language and not teaching lots of grammar.
Years ago, while teaching full time during the day, I took an anatomy and physiology course at night (helps with art work). The teacher, while very knowledgeable and himself an artist, was a horrible teacher. He lectured and it was a real struggle to stay awake. I’m a 4 percenter. I get it. I was doing fine, but others in the class were dying on the vine, and it was clear to me that they were NOT 4 percenters. I was doing a lot with Multiple Intelligences at the time and could tell that those struggling the most were much more spatial-bodily kinesthetic learners. One night, the usual teacher called in sick and one of the directors of the program had to fill in. He was, himself, a sculptor and jewelry craftsman as well. That night, he quickly showed us the muscles of the shoulder, then, made us pair up and palpate each muscle, insertion and attachment on our partner, then he made us draw what we were feeling, then he repeated his opening description and then he gave a quiz. EVERYONE in the room not only passed, but passed with flying colors.
I met with him later to applaud what he did as a teacher and begged him to share that approach with the regular teacher–who never bought into it. In microcosm, that’s the problem we face as language teachers. Some of us can see that most people can learn most things, but we simply cannot teach it in the “logical” way. The MI folks have it right—there are many kinds of intelligence and the really UNintelligent ones are those teachers who persist in teaching in just one way—the way that suits them and their needs and their ego driven conscious brains.