I found Frank McCourt's story to be very approachable and engaging. His willingness to talk about his personal history and bring his authenticity both to this video and into his classroom is very inspiring. At the beginning of the longer video, Frank mentions that he was told not to talk about himself too much but found this at odds with the student's natural curiosity about him. I'm curious about different schools of thought on the advantages and disadvantages of bringing our identities into the classroom.
Another part of the video that piqued my interest was when Frank addressed his approach to inevitable student "resistance." Under a traditional teaching model, most teachers would meet student skepticism and rebellion with a doubling down of academic standards. On the other hand, Frank talks about meeting the students where they're at, going with them, and engaging their "anguish, craziness, and raging hormones." This idea was definitely an "aha!" moment for me because it seems so straightforward, but it is truly monumental. Why would we try to fight the intellectual instincts of our students? Are their conclusions and ideas not as worthy (if not more worthy) of deeper exploration as fixed educational standards? In another class reading, an educator shared her practice of calling her students co-learners. To me, these ideas echo each other and reflect Frank's thought that if you're teaching and not learning, you're not really teaching. I'm eager to continue exploring this 2-way street of knowledge exchange as an alternative to the traditional lecturer-student model.
Lovely!!
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