(Cap'n Wes) and (Cap'n Wes's Ship)

Department of English

Wesley Venus
Teaching Philosophy
A near consensus has been reached by this point, I think, that we learn through facilitation from our teachers more actively and efficiently than we do by primary directive. In other words, the “poor” or inefficient teacher explains a thing in such a way that the student receives facts and information generally, presumably leaving it up to the student to make that information fit into its larger conceptual framework. The good teacher, then, would have the posture of a learning enabler, in a way, specializing in finding the best ways that students learn, individually or collectively, and then cultivating an environment that is maximally conducive those ends. The belief, in sum, is that full conceptualization is preferable to memorization, and I agree with it. Beyond that, I cannot be sure where I agree with the consensus view and where we differ. I define learning and knowledge a bit more broadly, I suspect.
Learning from my point of view goes on in any context, and knowledge reformulates itself in every waking moment. Also, and more importantly, learned content matters much less than do the qualities of a given learning medium. And in this specific case I’m thinking of the learning medium as the classroom (as opposed to the workplace, or the home, or the church, etc.). Up until the mid-nineteenth century, in the United States especially, the teacher-student relationship was often an unpleasant one and even sometimes antagonistic. These were like the “‘poor’ and ineffective” teachers that I refer to above. One cannot say, however, from my point of view, that learning did not go on in the classroom then. These students did in fact learn very valuable lessons about how to thrive (or fail) in a society and what it is like to be on the outside competing for a degree. How critically aware they were of this depends I suppose on the critical capacity and will of the students individually, but in all cases the rules and values of the culture were reinforced and re-internalized with each cultural interaction.
Ultimately, I would say, then, that though unpleasantness and open antagonism are (usually) no longer a part of the teacher-student dynamic, I think that built into the relationship is an inherent inequality, and I would like to minimize that, to be certain that I am focusing on empathy and facilitation rather than on defending my authority and keeping the weaker students from spoiling the strong. A general belief is that school should be at least a little competitive, so as to prepare our students for the “real world.” I honestly do not understand that argument because as far as I can tell what goes on outside of the classroom walls is no less really happening than what goes on within them. In most cases I find that students have a sort of programmed respect for authority without questioning it, but like many others I feel that that respect for authority is eroding. I resist the mindset of the petty tyrant who in a changing world would rather hold on to the scraps of an institution (“the noble professor”) that probably never really existed in the first place.
As an English composition teacher I find these goals easy enough to accomplish through the facilitation of discussion as openly as I can and through a reasonability in my grading and an approachability in private conferences. There is nothing I can do about the goals that the department and the university have set for the course any more than there is anything I can do to change the dynamics of the classroom that my students and I have been programmed to expect. That again, as they say, is reality. At any rate, I am not sure that there is any specific technique to ensure that everything I say and do is reasonable and empathetic. I try instead to approach my job with an attitude or a posture. Again, as I have written above, content matters much less than the quality of the medium through which it is conducted. If it isn’t me who is teaching these students these things, someone else will. Through a long and arduous process of trial-and-error I’m developing—learning, even—an intuitive skill. As a facilitator I am a person working with other people. Hopefully we can be on the same page about the goals that we are striving for.

If ye have any questions, ye can contact me at wcv1@uga.edu