Well, some of it, anyway. It seemed appropriate to verbalize my teaching philosophy since I’ve been teaching for so many years!
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
Joan Didion
It also occurred to me that some of my students might be interested in seeing something concrete. So after much thinking, consulting with a few respected colleagues in academia (Thanks Jack Falvey and Tony Russo!), I seem to have found out some of the important things I think and believe about teaching and learning. Here’s how it starts:
“When I challenged myself to describe my teaching philosophy, I remembered announcing that I was quitting teaching a few years ago. I knew I was on the right track when an adult student who’d just finished an advanced college degree announced at the beginning of our first class, “I’m tired of learning.” I honestly believed she was tired of being taught. I had to believe that. Learning is fun. Maybe if I quit teaching, she’d learn that.
Tony will, I hope, notice that I avoided dysentery of the keyboard. The entire thing is less than 500 words.!