tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post2803611673425631148..comments2024-03-24T17:01:24.541-04:00Comments on Crazy Eddie's Motie News: Three areas of expertisePinku-Senseihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-11556388571809102342015-08-04T08:36:17.615-04:002015-08-04T08:36:17.615-04:00You're absolutely right about how expert I nee...You're absolutely right about how expert I need to be. I don't have to be the world's expert on a topic to be a teacher, just the local expert. I know plenty about food and the food system. I even team-taught a course on "The Global Politics of Food" with a political scientist once. I just know that there are lots of people who know more.<br /><br />As for the rest of your comment, keep the inspiring stories coming!Pinku-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16247618351725715844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8752611264465083204.post-62828193335217024952015-08-03T16:39:16.376-04:002015-08-03T16:39:16.376-04:00You don't need to be a cutting-edge, "sma...You don't need to be a cutting-edge, "smarter than everyone else" expert about a topic to bring enlightenment when you're a teacher. You just need to be smarter than your students. And to have a good enough teaching style that you inspire them to want to learn more about a topic. As I'm sure you know.<br /><br />The teacher who had the second-greatest influence on my life <i>(after Mrs. Clancy, who taught me to read in second grade)</i> was my 7th-grade Social Studies teacher. Back in the 1970s, when they had such courses in public school, before the Reich Wing decided that any class that might question the current social order might introduce subversive ideas, and we're not having anyone question The Way Things Are using government money, nosirree!<br /><br />This 30-something guy, who shared an apartment with the junior high French teacher <i>(and was almost certainly gay, although nobody thought about teachers' sexuality back then)</i> taught us pre-teens about ecology back when that was a new thing. One of the most effective lessons was when he played Tom Lehrer's song "Pollution" in class and then we discussed the serious topics in that funny song. <i>(He also spun "Who's Next?" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrbv40ENU_o" rel="nofollow">"So Long Mom"</a> and "National Brotherhood Week" Can you imagine what would happen if little Jane or Jama'al came home and told their parents about THAT these days?)</i> Something about the things he broached was a catalyst in my young mind, energising my latent anti-authoritarian tendencies.<br /><br />Noam Chomsky would argue that our brains are hard-wired to WANT to learn, so most kids could eventually run across SOME teacher who would light up a budding bit in their cerebrums. With the Amerikan popkkkultural zeitgeist now turned toward taking the piss at the idea of being educated <i>(it's not just the Right which is doing this, either; I'm pointing my finger at rap music and the technostraction device industry too)</i> those sparks are being snuffed before birth, to the delight of the Corporate Overlords.Bukko Boomerangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424677168216647964noreply@blogger.com