My Philosophy on Teaching You

Did you ever stick your hand on a hot iron or stove even when you had been told not to and you knew it was going to hurt? Why did you do that? Probably because you had questions to be answered, “I wonder what this will feel like, or can I touch it so quickly that it won’t burn me?” You knew it was stupid but you couldn’t escape those questions. But questions drive us. It’s one reason why our society hasn’t sparkled and faded away.

The teaching of journalism and mass communication also revolves around questions. There are stories to be told: sometimes by us or sometimes through us. Either way, we have to ask the right questions, at the right time, and we have to find the questions that haven’t been asked yet. Then comes the hard part: we have to find a way to answer those questions for ourselves. This leads to the main thesis of my teaching philosophy. I can’t answer all the questions for you. I can’t show you where all the bones are buried. What I can do is strive to instill a confidence in you, empowering you to look for the answers yourself. If that happens, then you won’t need me when your college years are done. If you choose to stay in the field of mass communication, hopefully this ability to ask the right questions and find the answers for yourself will add to your ability to be a responsible storyteller.

I gained this philosophy early while teaching new media technologies and web design. There is simply no way for me to know everything about new media. The language and technology changes everyday, too fast for anyone to master. I will never have all the answers and trying to achieve that would be tantamount to chasing a dangling carrot in front of me always out of my grasp. Thus, the best way for me to be an effective teacher is to show you how to find the answers for yourself, and then we can both learn as we go along. Of course, this doesn’t excuse me from being your guide, being your mentor in the classroom, or teaching you the fundamentals and core values you will need as a mass communicator. We will openly discuss how you think class is going. I’ll ask you to evaluate me so I can know where my strengths and weaknesses lie. I expect to grow intellectually and professionally with you. Hopefully, you will teach me as much as, if not more than, I teach you.

So when you ask me a question and I am stumped, we will discuss how we can go about learning the answers with the tools that we are given. Most of the time the answer is right around the corner. We’re just afraid to peak. You will find that my class and my teaching attitude are relaxed and designed to make sure you understand the concepts we are discussing. I don’t have a three-point strategy for teaching. Do you have a three-point strategy for learning? Have you learned some lessons differently than others? You may be a visual learner while the person next to you may be an experiential learner. Perhaps you relate more to the classics than to pop culture references. In that case, maybe you’d feel more comfortable scratching out the byline from my beginning quote and writing “Shakespeare” in its place. Just remember, misattributed quotes get you in trouble in a journalism school.

The Internet has not only changed the questions we ask, but it has also changed how we answer those questions. Each of us holds a body of knowledge and new media technologies such as the Internet serve as a way to connect that knowledge. Your quest for answers does not need to be a lonely journey. You will find that one way I encourage you to answer your questions is to use tutorials and online materials that others have already posted online. This is the basis of journalism and mass communication: people have gathered information into a concise piece and share that with interested audiences. My wish is that my small class teaches you bigger lessons. Don’t rely on others to answer the big questions for you. Don’t rely on the media to tell you how to live your life or what to believe. Don’t trust that the way they chose to answer their questions is the same way you should choose to answer your questions. I hope to show you that learning new material can be achieved by taking several different paths. As a scholar once said, “Know Thyself.” I would add, “Inform Thyself.”