i have been teaching since 1994. man, that’s 12 years. and to be honest, i still don’t know whether i did well or sucked big time.
i started out imitating the style of my favorite professors. as they say “you cannot give what you don’t have”. typical political science/law professor strategy: scare the shit out of your students with hellish recitation sessions, boatloads of readings and an unshakable arrogance. as i love to tell my students then, “suffering builds character”.
maybe i got tired of the routine or the devil talked to me in my sleep. but whatever the reason, i found myself critically examining my teaching style. is this working? am i helping students think critically for themselves? i mean, really think for themselves. not just mimic what i say or agree with my opinions. or am i just power tripping? satisfying my narcissistic tendencies?
it was then that i realized that to make young people think for themselves, i have to stop being a teacher. i have to remove that cloak of authority that tells them i’m always right. i have to allow them to undermine what i represented. i have to make them subversives. in other words, i have to make myself irrelevant.
it was difficult because it’s hard to let go of that much power. it’s not easy to trust other people to do things right. but really, can you teach critical thinking if you do not allow students to question you? others of course would say that young people need structure, they need discipline. but whose structure? this is the type of thinking that values conformity over autonomy. i just think it doesn’t make any sense. de quiros was right when he wrote ” school got in the way of my education, so i quit school”
i think learning should be liberalized from the control of THE “professor”. i think young people should push the limits of authority. i think they should transgress rather than follow. i think they should rebel rather than conform. they should dissent rather than agree. without struggle there is no progress. the more i teach, the less they learn.
but will this not create chaos? yes. and that’s good. structures are meant to be undermined. systems are meant to fall apart. order is overrated.
so while teachers are busy making students learn, students should be busy unlearning. they should create new visions, forge new alternatives and construct their own realities. its the only way to freedom.
