On Teaching Well
Welcome to the inaugural post for On Teaching, A daily thought on the art and endeavor of flourishing as an independent, classical Christian teacher. Posts will be fairly short and strive to instruct, delight, and move teachers in their calling as entrepreneurial educators.
What makes a good teacher? In his book, The Art of Humane Education, Donald Phillip Verene asserts,
The dull teacher may have knowledge but no true language for it. Such a teacher can instruct but has not ability to delight or move, and thus is boring. The comedic teacher is shallow and a menace to the subject matter, because such a performer is a sham. The comedic teacher is a sophist and enjoys the success that the sophist often enjoys. The comedic teacher’s aim is audience satisfaction and often such teachers are the recipients of rewards. Neither boredom or comedy is sustaining for the student. The truth of the subject matter is what makes possible both the teacher and the student.((Donald Phillip Verene, The Art of Humane Education (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002), 23.))
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