Week 02: Response to "Is the Great American Teacher Dead?"

In this week's assignment, I read an article by John J. Ivers called "Is the Great American Teacher Dead?"

    Ivers is a Ph.D., currently Dean of the College of Language & Letters from Brigham Young - Idaho University. In his article, he invites the reader to think about the U.S student culture and their lack of motivation and inspiration. According to his study, this issue is faced in all U.S colleges, even the most famous and elite Institutions. It seems that teachers are now just the delivery of a message, and the students are just listeners. The Institutions are facing a lack of depth in their teachings. They spread an environment closer to a war zone than a supportive, inviting, creative environment as the Colleges are mean to be. I need to say that here in Brazil aren't so far from the same perspective. We can see Colleges full of students, but we are not seeing their growth during their pursuit of a degree. The most important discoveries and innovations from the last centuries came from College Research Centers. 

    What needs to be done to transform the College into the flaming storehouse of ideas from earlier days? How can we, as teachers, help to build critical thinking students? How to transform ourselves from mere message delivers to passionate student developers? This is what Ivers helps to think about in this article. He suggests that we have the task to not bored our students, with the same old-fashioned lesson recipe. Instead, we need to transform the theory into action. In a quote attributed to Dirks (2006), he says that "A truly transformative experience is on where 'we are left with the feeling that life will not be as it was before, that this experience has created a sense that we cannot back to the way we were before the experience'"(p.132) This is such the type of transformation that must occur. Despite Ivers had talked about the American College Culture, what he suggests is applicable to all teachers who want to be better.

    Ivers suggests that despite our culture we need to develop universal elements that can be found in all cultures. He lists some of those elements and describes how each one of them can change us into better teachers. I want to mention a few (some of the mine comments)

. Dance (The teacher doesn't need to stay static during all class. Moving around the class, being closer than away, making gestures can help to create this movement feeling. And isn't knowledge a movement? From one step to another as we go deep into a subject. By doing this "dance" in the class we create this movement feeling)

. Generosity admired (I want to reproduce Iver's comment " be fair, not a tyrant" Life itself is too hard. Why do we need to add another anxiety layer to a student already tired from having this feeling?)

. Jokes (This is a suggested form to keeps the student's attention Ivers said. And I need to agree and say that well-balanced, jokes can create a welcoming environment, where the student feels safe to make mistakes. And we learn when we make mistakes)

. Empathy (There’s no need for more tyrants in the world. Instead, we desperately need more empathy)

. Rhythm (If we maintain the same speech speed and the same voice tone during all lessons, we will lose the student's attention after a couple of minutes. So, by changing the speech speeds, changing the intonation, making dramatic pauses, all this can help to create a good delivery)

    The teacher doesn't need to perfect. The teacher just needs to be passionate about his career to develop passionate students.