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DEPARTMENTS – OCTOBER 2009

Robotham—Minds on Fire

Reflections on the joys of teaching and encouraging individual thought.

By Tom Robotham

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Last fall I began teaching English at Old Dominion University. Now, with a new academic year well underway, I am reminded of how privileged I feel to be part of this noble profession.

Ifeel that way for a couple of reasons.

First, it's gratifying to know that I am giving students some of the basic tools they'll need to succeed in college and beyond. In my basic composition courses, I make a point of reviewing rules of grammar and logic, elements of style and methods of research. One of my objectives when I teach introduction to literature, meanwhile, is to familiarize students with great works of prose, poetry and drama, both classic and contemporary. I firmly believe that everyone, regardless of his or her major or career goals, should have at least some knowledge of the Western Canon—that great body of literary works, from Dante to Joyce and beyond. Taken together, they form a key part of the very intellectual foundation of Western Civilization.

But I've long believed that education should be about something more than imparting knowledge. And I am hardly alone in this regard. Albert Einstein, for example, once made this point in an essay called "On Education."

Many people, he wrote, see schools as mere instruments "for transferring a ... maximum quantity of knowledge. ... But that is not right. Knowledge is dead; the school, however, serves the living. It should develop in young individuals those qualities and capabilities which are of value for the welfare of the commonwealth. But that does not mean that individuality should be destroyed and the individual [should] become a mere tool of the community, like a bee or an ant. For a community of standardized individuals without personal originality ... would be a poor community. ... [T]he aim must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals. ... " [Emphasis added.]

With this in mind, I have come to see myself not just as a conveyor of rules and facts but as a kind of arsonist. Every time I walk into the classroom, I try to set students' minds on fire, so that they can learn to think critically and imaginatively.

On the whole, I have found that students are remarkably receptive to this invitation. Moreover, most of them are quite up to the task.

The trouble is, we tend to underestimate them. Last year, when I decided to introduce freshman in my persuasive writing class to one of Plato's dialogues, several colleagues of mine told me I was crazy. "They won't be able to handle that," one of them told me. Cautiously, I assigned it to them anyway. And I was pleased to discover that they not only understood the work but also loved it.

True, many students lack a mastery of grammar and the ability to construct a polished essay. But we do them a disservice when we take this as a sign that they're dumb. If college students are encouraged to write, and are offered guidance in these matters, they will catch up soon enough.

The main problem is not that they've failed to learn grammar but that they've not been encouraged to think for themselves. Elementary and secondary schools today—with their obsessive emphasis on standardized testing—seem to have as their objective precisely what Einstein warned against: the churning out of standardized minds.

A case in point: When my daughter was in high school, she had an English teacher who believed that for each work of literature there was only one correct interpretation. One day, when she asked the students to share their thoughts on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, my daughter eagerly raised her hand and offered her take on a particular scene.

"No, that's wrong," the teacher said. "Anyone else?"

Many of my students at ODU have had similar experiences and are therefore surprised when I sincerely want to know what they think and why.

For the rest of Minds on Fire, pickup our October issue wherever magazines are sold.

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