Re: Learning/Teaching

[Denise Rogers <dmr2899@usl.edu>]

>
>If our students don't desire to know what we have to teach, how
>can we create that desire?  If our students don't recognize that
>they need to know what we have to teach, how can we create that
>need?

Lady and others,

I may be the exception in my learning experience, but I have become
interested in many things that I had no desire to learn at the time, but
having been introduced to, became interested in (if not while a student,
then at a later time in life).

When I was young, I didn't know enough to know what I might be interested in.
I'm really appreciative of those people who patiently introduced me to
ideas and activities that I thought I would hate. (Most recently, I'm
really appreciative of the person who introduced me to boiled crawfish,
which I had absolutely no interest in eating. Turns out they're quite
tasty. :))

It just seems that we give up on *introducing* ideas of all kinds. I'm
curious--when (and if) you teach literature courses, do you try to only
teach those stories that you think students will be interested in?
Sometimes I do tell students to look through the book and pick out stories
that they think look interesting to them, but about 50% of the time, I make
the choices, and of those choices, some stories completely fail (and of
course, this sometimes depends on the class) and others become class
favorites. Then there are the stories that people tell me they absolutely
hated but they talk and talk and talk about the characters and the ideas,
etc.

I really do try not to make assumptions that students don't want to learn
anything but what they are interested in. I don't know, completely, what
they will be interested in and what they won't be interested in. Of course,
our school has a lot of returning students and older students, so our
population is a little older. That may make a difference.

Denise


Denise
drogers@linknet.net