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To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (1711)	8/18/2001 2:24:06 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 1857

What a delightful post. Thanks for sharing! The teaching I was referring to was in high school. I taught in private schools, and taught math, English, and philosophy. I fully agree with you that the key is to engage the student and get them to WANT to learn, but it's harder with high school student, IMO (I later taught in graduate school, so I have some basis for comparison!) since they are a) almost professionally committed to being blase about everything an adult is concerned with, and b) not at that point, for the most part, interested in careers so relating things to business wouldn't have worked. I agree totally about the hearing/reading/doing principle you wrote about. That's why in math, for example, I demanded that the school ring my classroom with blackboards. At the start of each class, all the students (being in private school I had small classes) got up to the blackboards and I assigned each one one problem from the previous night's assigment to put on the board. (I was kind enough that if they said they didn't get that problem I would let them switch, but I made a note of it for the next part of the class.) Then if anybody didn't get the same answer, or couldn't do the problem, the person who put it up had to explain their answer and how they got it. And if there were no questions, I had two or three chosen at random go through their answer in detail anyhow. As they say, the best way to learn something is to teach it! Naturally at the beginning of the year the students HATED this, especially the shy ones, but it soon got to be a game with them and a matter of pride not to admit that they didn't get a problem, so they all sweated them out or went to friends for help. By the end of the first month my class was so far ahead of the other class in the same subject that the headmaster ordered the other teacher to follow the same practice. It was the matter of doing the problems there in public and having to explain their answers that was the most effective part. That, and that if they didn't do the assignment it would instantly show up the next day, very publicly! (Oh, sure, if they had some good reason for not doing their homework some night I would let them off the hook; the point was to teach them, not to humiliate them. But that wasn't a problem very often.) In graduate school I had the same basic experience you did -- all you had to do was hook the learning up with real life problems and issues and they would dig into it with gusto.

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (1711)	8/18/2001 2:36:44 PM
From: Poet	Respond to of 1857

I am very glad to have you back and see you're feeling a little better, JC. Your post on teaching really hit the mark.

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (1711)	8/18/2001 7:35:18 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1857

JC: Glad to know you're recovering... I got an update over on the porch...I have lurked on this thread and like what I see -- its a nice community. Thanks so much for sharing your insights on teaching. I wish I had the opportunity to take a class from you <G>. I have a hunch you were an outstanding teacher. Many of us have learned a lot from you on SI too. Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy those Golden Retrievers...=) Best Regards, Scott