A Motto for Teaching

March 10, 2006

Today I discovered a teaching motto in the Library of Congress. I remember noticing it often last summer, since it is well situated for me to glance at as I ascend the final round of stairs on my way to the Middle East and Africa Reading Room.. but I never thought of it in terms of teaching.

I think I will tuck that picture into my future syllabi.. and mention it on the first day of class.

Writing does make an “exact” person.. learning to take ideas and set them down in ordered form builds a habit of reasoned thinking. Numerous times I have started out with what I could have sworn was a great idea, but then as I started trying to write, it all seemed suddenly hazy and vague. Writing is a form of self criticism..

Reading makes a person “full.” That is a literal word for the feeling that one has after reading. I remember my year in Cairo, Egypt.. when I was just studying with no opportunity to teach.. and how unnatural it felt to be taking in so much without any place to go with it. Knowledge makes a person full in the sense that one is ready to overflow—i.e. share with others.. whether in the classroom, with family, or even with others in a community.

The most difficult of these three precepts to grasp was “conference makes a man ready.” Today came my breakthrough when I realized that “conference” was another way of saying social interaction. But then how does that make one “ready”? I take that to mean a person is able to think on his or her feet.. that person is ready to answer directly. That starts to explain why student participation is important.. something I have trouble explaining at times.. Sure students acquire knowledge, and sure they learn to write a good paper, but they also should be ready to state a point of view in a social situation.

I was thinking about another quotation today (these are just two out of many up there on the second floor of the library). This one asserts that “The true university of these days is a collection of books.” That would be the autodidact's motto, and it seems to come from a time when books were suddenly available to everyone.. in a lending library or for purchase. That must have been an exhilarating time, and there must have been something of the feeling that is now connected to the World Wide Web, which also inspires its share of exaggerated praise. And today while I did some work at the Library of Congress, I thought about how a library is a lot like the World Wide Web.. suddenly an immense amount of knowledge is open to someone like me.. But while I like the exhilaration that comes with all that open knowledge, I think a university is more than shelves and shelves of books.. or DSL service on a computer. A university adds a human dimension to all that knowledge, and nurtures a sense of wisdom from the use of that knowledge. That at least is how I imagine a university..