Philosophy and Education

Philosophy and Education

On Tuesday, we took a journey through the history of philosophy and education. Reaching back well over two thousand years, we looked at what the philosophers Socrates, Plato, Michel Montaigne, François La Rochefoucauld, and John Dewey had to say about education.

As social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter become more and more relevant in our society, it may at first glance be easy to criticize reducing our speech to only 140 characters. Yet the seventh century French philosopher, François La Rochefoucauld, a staple of French salons, believed that big ideas could be conveyed in a few words. La Rochefoucauld was a writer of aphorisms, who believed verbosity does not make one’s ideas important, and in fact oftentimes long-windedness is the easiest way to lose one’s audience.

Take a look at this video from the School of Life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CEvFA7laik

Notice toward the end of the video, how Alain de Botton makes the important point that we cannot assume the way in which we teach (or express our ideas) is inconsequential due to the importance of our subject manner.

So sometimes less is more, to quote Shakespeare’s’ Hamlet “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

Vivas to Those Who Have Failed

I've known for a while that our students have a difficult time risking failure, yet I've also encountered many anecdotes in my reading that emphasize the importance of failure in the learning process and in building character.  Poets seem to know this, as suggested by the section of Leaves of Grass the title of this post refers to, and I'm also thinking of that great title of a poem by Roethke, "In a Dark Time, The Eye Begins to See."  Robert did a very nice job of guiding us through a multifaceted presentation that involved role-playing, Ted Talks, references to mindfulness, compassion, and quotes on failure.  I would recommend to those who couldn't attend the workshop, one resource in particular that Robert showed the group: Brene Brown's TedTalk, The Power of Vulnerable.  The presentation gave me some good ideas on how to reduce the amount of shame and guilt associated with failure in the classroom.

Creativity + Collaboration = Sparks!

There's a great origin story about Pixar. The original design for Pixar studios consisted of three separate buildings. The plan kept the computer scientists together, the animators in a second building, and directors/editors/business development housed in the third. However, Steve Jobs saw a flaw. The real magic of Pixar would entail merging cultures, meaning computer scientists and cartoonists must truly work together and collaborate for the studio to succeed and differentiate itself. By building walls, the studio's intent would be obstructed. Instead, Jobs insisted on a single, cavernous space. In fact, there would be just two bathrooms, both situated in the very center of the space. While inconvenient, it meant there would be unexpected conversations while washing hands. Steve Jobs knew that "human friction makes the sparks, and when you're talking about a creative endeavor, you have to force people to mix. Our natural tendency is to stay isolated, to talk to people who are just like us, who speak our private languages, who understand our problems. But that's a big mistake" (NPR). Creativity is often triggered by collaboration and by curiosity; originality is often triggered by other people's ideas. 

This felt especially true in today's workshop on "Creativity in the Classroom". Faculty from different disciplines and different divisions gathered to discuss creativity in the classroom, which led to a dialogue that applied to all corners of campus. We will continue our conversation next semester. Together, we'll share intellectual risk taking, failing forward, and shifting the culture to creativity and curiosity. Whether with our students or our colleagues, we'll collaborate and create sparks!

- Kate Muttick

As I was preparing for this workshop, I was reminded how important this type of collaborative work is. Not only did it encourage me to think about my own classroom practices, but it also nudged me back into some of those educations books on my shelves, searching for other ideas to share and for the theories that make these practices sound. In doing so, I've stumbled upon some new creative reading and writing activities that I am eager to try with my students. This week of workshops provides a nice transition to reflect on this past year and begin thinking and planning for the year ahead.  I want to thank those colleagues who attended this workshop and for their participation.

We've Reflected! Now Let's Keep Connecting!

It's only Day 1 of the Berkeley Summer Professional Development Conference, and already colleagues from across divisions and disciplines have engaged in thoughtful conversations about important pedagogical topics. Jeff Righter ran a dynamic workshop on reading and writing strategies that brought English and World Language teachers together in conversation about understanding texts, writing poetry, and mimicking the linguistic style of authors such as Mark Doty and Ray Bradbury. How fascinating to hear a Spanish teacher, Latin teacher, and four English teachers discuss common problems of practice in teaching literary analysis! From deciphering tone to understanding satire, students in classes from English 10 to AP Latin read and analyze literature in similar ways. Conversations among participants were so engaging that the group is already talking about forming a Professional Learning Community on the topic for 2016-2017 school year!

As we all know, a true growth mindset is not cultivated in a single moment. We must continue to reflect and connect even after our workshops end. This blog can serve as place to share information and resources as we plan for the upcoming school year. Let's keep the conversation going! Facilitators and attendees, please consider writing a blog post on your workshop experiences! Posts can certainly be informal. Please reflect on your experience!

Questions you might want to consider:

1. What two takeaways did you gain from your workshop(s) and how will you apply them in your classroom?

2. How might you use the information/ideas from the workshop(s) to collaborate with colleagues within and outside of your academic department or division?

3. How did the workshop(s) encourage you to adopt a growth mindset?


I offer these questions to those of you who might need a little inspiration, but please feel free to write about whatever you like in response to your experience!