Seems like a simple question. It has provoked a number of thoughts in me that I hope to keep updating. A few friends are tagging along to add their thoughts too, jump right in if you so desire…
Some starting assumptions…
- A student has a nature. A teacher must understand and address the student according to their nature.
- Teachers are to educate, to lead out, to cultivate in their students wisdom and virtue by contemplating with their students truth, goodness, and beauty.
- Teaching is an art. It cannot be approached as a science because that is not its nature.
- There are two basics means of cultivating wisdom and virtue in another human soul: the contemplation of shared models and the shared contemplation of questions.
So, therefore, teachers…
- Contemplate ideas, seeking first to fill their own souls before believing they can lead other souls, by specifically being able to…
- See the Universals (or forest) of an idea and…
- See the Particulars (or trees) of an idea, and can then…
- Take it apart and put it back together again as an idea.
- Teach students how to contemplate ideas, both by example and instruction.
- Collect models that are true, good, and beautiful (stories, people, and artifacts) for student contemplation, which implies that they are constantly…
- Observing the world around them, hunting for models, so that they can…
- Record/collect those models and then…
- Retrieve those models for specific lessons
- Invent questions.
- Teach students the art of asking questions, esp. through the Topics
- Ask students questions that cause them to think
- Cultivate a learning environment (a “school” or place of leisure) which would include…
- A safe place for asking/answering questions
- Modeling and cultivating clear thought
- Time and space for contemplation
