I wish we'd had more time to discuss Mike Rose's Lives on The Boundary. At Liliana's party, I was telling Christopher that I figured Mike Rose's youth must have taken place in the late 60s and/or early 70s because he mentions a teacher who has a rather primitive technique and merely teaches through repetition and by means of mimeographed exercises supplied by the textbook publishers (where have I seen that happen?).
It is easy to get lost in the beauty of Mike Rose's prose, as any teacher can relate to his experiences in the classroom and has made many of the decisions he has made (how can I make a difference in this kid's learning process? do I take this job? whatever happened to B after graduation?).
Christopher called for quotes and another one comes to my mind: "I believe in the power of invitation". Teaching is like a party. You do your best at cooking something for your students, and make the invitation. Whether they decide to come or not is not always up to you, but you sure need to make an enticing menu!
I couldn't help but thinking about this "Enticing Menu" metaphor when I met Randy at the Loop Campus. People are so nice here, that one always feels welcome. I spoke to Randy for hours and he kindly introduced me with his staff, who were as welcoming as he.
Unfortunately, I couldn't witness a class at the English Language Center, but Randy showed me a link to a video that one of his students filmed on the occasion of last year's DePaul Vincentian Service Day, which I gladly share:
I can see where the banquet metaphor that shows up in your other blog took root here.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I wish we could have talked more about Rose, and maybe even have read the entire book. It seems as if we really never settled into good, long discussions on any one topic, and that is a problem that Katie and I need to address. Maybe we had too many readings, and we definitely didn't have enough time.