…read this from Stephen Downes. It distills a lot of my raggedy thoughts on ‘teaching’ into a potent draught. Many memorable bits, but I wish I’d said this one:
I gave up arguing during my abortive PhD, when I realized that there was no point to argumentation. I have since then tried to live what I believe, and when people would ask, to explain why I believed it. This allowed me a certain detachment, because it didn’t matter whether they agreed with me, what mattered is that my explanation was true and honest and forthright.
Nice thought, but actually being what we would like our students to be is a bit daunting to think about. I would like to think that my students could be much better…there’s the trick!