Credo on Teaching

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There are as many different styles of teaching as there are teachers. It is important to me, from time to time, to reflect on what I do and why, just so that I can avoid the horrible hollow of habit, a condition that drains me and the profession of enthusiasm as well as creativity.

Learning to write is learning to think. As a Teacher Consultant for the San Jose Area Writing Project, I believe that there is no job more important to the teacher of English than to develop confident writers who appreciate the power of their words and become highly skilled in their use. I believe that many and varied experiences with writing to be the effective way to stimulate these writers. Learning to read critically is an important step in the development of thinking skills. Responding to literature and to classmates in both reading and discussion is the most effective way to stimulate thinking and to learn life skills that will provoke entertaining conversations forever. I know that you learn far more from each other than you will ever learn from me. My job is to establish the environment in which this exchange of ideas can take place.

Learning to think critically and to read and write effectively can best be achieved in a nurturing atmosphere where students are encouraged to help and encourage one another. My most important goal is to "create a stimulating yet relaxed environment where students can feel we are almost amongst family," as one student put it. In such an environment students may take risks, consider new options, re-think assumed values, try on new ideas for size. The need for mutual trust and respect is essential for such activities, from and towards me, as well as from and towards each other. Intellectual integrity requires that we all hold ourselves to the same standards to which we hold others. An atmosphere where we are willing to admit our own shortcomings is likely to foster rather than discourage the revealing of vulnerabilities, and the honest evaluation of our own inner value system is the key to maturity and moral growth.

Intellectual integrity and intellectual perserverence are standards to which I hold myself and my students. I have taken no shortcuts in providing you with the best of my coaching skills, and I expect the same diligence from you. If you do not understand a story or an idea on the first reading, I expect that you will re-read until you do. "I don't get it" after one reading is not acceptable. Neither is "This is a stupid story." I do not intentionally assign stupid stories or novels or poems, and if you don't like a piece of literature, I expect you to be able to articulate why. Critical thinking requires perserverence.

I believe that we all learn best when we can make connections between what we learn in a classroom and our other life experiences. That is why I try to model those connections by relating something we read to my own life experiences with my family, friends, or related reading, and I encourage you to do the same. Just as literature is not written in a vacuum, it is also not well studied in a vacuum; to be meaningful it must relate to real life. That is verisimilitude.

I can think of no other job where I may laugh heartily, be moved to tears, grasp an idea I'd never thought of before, or see those responses from students, sometimes several times a day. Teaching fulfills my deepest needs to connect with other learners and to participate fully in the life force. It is my fondest hope that you each find a calling as gratifying.