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Taking Apart vs. Being a Part of
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9 thoughts on “Taking Apart vs. Being a Part of”
Wow! Yes. Holistic teaching (the whole child) , holistic assessments, holistic and communal classroom.
We often use the term “organic” when we talk about language. That takes us into the realm of biology, and that provides a good analogy.
I can dissect an animal or even a human body (e.g. for an autopsy or medical research) and find out a lot of things about it, but I can never experience the dissected animal or human as a living being. I can never play fetch with a dissected dog, watch a dissected cat chase the laser pointer light, listen to a dissected canary sing, share a joke with a human cadaver.
Language is the same. If I dissect it, it is dead; I can never experience its excitement and vibrancy. The only way to do that is to engage with it whole – holistically – and alive.
Great point there, Robert. It makes me realize that we are literally breathing life into something that is dead. But since human beings cannot do that, it follows that there is a force far greater than ourselves who has his hands directly involved with this work we are doing. We can’t do it, but he can. That’s how I see it. No wonder this work is so exciting! It has no limits!
I am currently visiting the French classes at Lincoln. I can’t really write more now but it is like being on a WHOLE NOTHER PLANET. It is 1992 French class at First Presbyterian Day School in Macon, GA all over again. I would have enjoyed this class. It is just like Mme. Coggins’ class. I was literally her star student. But I am not teaching clones of myself. So although I enjoyed French class…I have changed it all for my kids.
More later.
Oh how I do not miss the 90s!
Cannot WAIT to hear more about the visit.
Wilhelm Vietor was decrying this sort of pedagogy in 1905. 1905! And we are still having to confront it today. Following a grammar syllabus (code name: textbook) is a method that has been discredited and repeatedly debunked for its lack of foundation, lack of engagement, lack of rigor, and lack of results – yet it refuses to die. And students, generation after generation, must suffer through the long Night of the Living Dead.
I went on a long bike ride today and the now-familiar thought kept popping into my head with far too much regularity: “How do those grammar teachers get away with it?” Then I banish the thought and then it pops up again a few miles later. Really, it is just amazing what they have been getting away with. It’s like they built the rocket upside down and we came along and said, “Hey, this rocket is upside down. You need to turn it over. The nose goes up facing the sky!” And then some administrator comes in and sees us standing there saying that to the rocket scientists and get upset with us, since they also know a thing or two about which direction rockets on launching pads need to face. I’m thinking of putting into my iPod Barry Manilow’s greatest hits just to keep this from happening on my bike rides. I would far prefer that in my mind to this recurring thought about why our field is in glacial change mode right now.
Oy! if we think it’s an uphill battle with educated professionals in the public schools, may I just give some perspective on working in supplementary religious school? I’m teaching Hebrew at my (enlightened!) temple’s school in the evening/on Sundays. The director and teachers and everyone are open to what I’m doing…because they’re glad that someone with any inkling of how to do it has stepped up. They knew NOTHING of SLA; little of classroom mgmt; several don’t speak basic face to face Hebrew (and have been teaching it for YEARS – no I’m not kidding), and worst of all, are in fear of telling parents the truth about how their kids behave; and then sometimes they use these weaknesses to defend their til-now inferior programming.
I’m still finding my way in the Hebrew classroom. It’s the PERFECT laboratory to experiment with Invisibles, so I will start watching Tina’s vids more regularly, and then will start filming myself….
Imagine having 5+ highly disruptive kids in a Hebrew school class at 5pm on Wednesday evening (after a full day of public school) -and learning that they have an IEP a mile long – even a 1-to-1 aide at public school – and then when I ask to talk to the parents to learn more in order to meet that kid’s needs, I’m answered with, “the relationship and trust are too fragile – we don’t want to turn them away.” Of course I answered that with, “If a Hebrew school teacher tried to forge a partnership w/me, the parent, in the best interest of my child, I’d know that I was in the right place!”
But I think the will and the accountability aren’t there to do it right.
So I’m trucking along, modeling a more professional stance and expectations… and much better Hebrew instruction – more engaging, more comprehensible, etc.
I’ll let you know how it’s going every few weeks or so.
Really there’s only one ‘difficult’ class out of the 3 that I teach.
I wanna be able to roll in, do a slam dunk Invisibles thang, write it up, read and repeat.