Jun 26, 2008
A secret influence of teaching and writing: Let your students and readers be discoverers.
Great instruction directs us toward ideas, while helping us feel like we’re genuinely finding these ideas ourselves, rather than being blindly led.
Well stated, and I agree. I think C.S. Lewis would agree as well. I like #4 in particular.
My apologies for the bad link. Try this.
I found this to be true while homeschooling five of our children. They did the work if I gave them step-by-step directions, but they LEARNED if I gave them guidelines.
I’ve thought a lot about how this fits in with preaching. Speaking passionately and saying important things aren’t enough. A preacher can be very clear and passionate in stating what it is that is so important, but without leading me there, my ears and mind will be at odds.
Interestingly enough, it seems that this idea of discovery gets lost in the frantic push for higher test scores and grades.
In spite of my personal teaching philosophy, I’ve often wondered, am I truly teaching or just preparing my students for the next test/quiz?
In my experience, many many students don’t want to discover – they only want the information that will help them get an “A” on the next exam.
There are exceptions, of course and for those students, teaching is as much of a discovery(for me) as is learning is (for them).
What a joy that can be.
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”.
In the same way, teach a man to think and he will change the world.
I’m sure we all remember Alexander Pope’s dictum:
Man must be taught as if you taught him not,
and things unknown proposed as things forgot.
Actually I’m not altogether sure we all do remember that…
;)
This helps me to remember how some of the greatest bible teaching I have received has always caused me to want to read on… keep searching… exhaust the topic, if that is even possible.
Great post!
A quote I’m sure you’re all familiar with, but along these lines and powerful in its brevity.
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Totally agree. I remember saying something like this about halfway through my seminary degree, then wishing that all my professors thought the same way.
True.
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