Improvement

As my final semester at Ualbany rushed to close, a favorite professor told me something that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. I expressed dismay that I could already feel her lessons slipping from my mind, the particular facts blurred into one another. Her response was to say, she doesn't recall anything that those she admired taught her. She remembers their approach to problem solving. She didn't say that this is what I should try to remember about her but the implication was clear.

This echoes the idea of teaching a man to fish rather than giving a gift of food. Teachers always talk vaguely, or specifically, about teaching students how to learn rather than providing a list of facts. I've been wondering how to be a better educator myself. But the people who influenced me the most, it was the strength of their personality and distinctive style that I remember rather than any visible effort they put forth. (Of course polished lectures only seem effortless). I was mainly discouraged by my relative lack of knowledge compared with professors who have been in the field for 20, 30, 40 years so my first impulse was to study more, memorize my own list of facts. But recalling the aforementioned professor has changed my mind. Increased knowledge is part of it but that will come almost by default. So my attempt at education should not focus on memorizing lists of facts myself but refining my style as a scientist and lecturer.

Even this focus might be in error. I realize that it is tailored to the motivated interested student likely above the level of undergraduate. For bored undergraduates or high school students taking a required (but not necessarily desired) course, the task becomes one of presenting information that is relevant to more than academic life. At a time when standardized testing is becoming more and more important, raising the spectre of the standardized student, I encourage any and all educators to attempt what integration of "daily life" they can.