PaulStevens17June2014

APersonalPedagogy
To teach is to practice and demonstrate what it means to be human.
What more important job is there, when every action, every word, even those unconscious
to us, can have a profound effect on the young people we see every day? Content is
significant certainly - and I have articulated why I believe Art plays a particularly didactic
and empowering role in education, and how the promotion of creativity is too easily
sidelined by educational policy - but to be a teacher is to be more than a vessel for
knowledge.
Ideally a teacher is a manifestation of the ideal citizen of the world self-reflexively
practicing what it entails to be engaged and compassionate as well as always learning, and
in this sense to aim at being fully human, so students can learn first by example. In the
words of William Ayers from his book To Become a Teacher, Teaching is always a search for
better teaching. (pg. xiii, 1995).
Being an effective teacher is nothing if not a paradox. It is to be able to be vulnerable while
maintaining a thick skin, patience and professionalism. It is to teach content to students but
be more focused on individuals and enabling them to discover who they are for themselves.
It is not so much about teaching as it is about empowering people to learn for themselves. It
about being fully present and knowing when to get out of the way.
It is about operating within a system, ticking the boxes as needed, but to actively work
against the system if that is in the best interests of the learner. I believe almost all great
teaching is done by transgressing doctrines and policies too often designed to enslave.
Teaching is a subversive activity, and while institutions by nature tend to do nothing but
attempt at control and conformity, great teaching requires love, spontaneity and passion.
What is my teaching philosophy in short? Thats easy: Just as the traditional Mori proverb
asks: He aha te mea nui o te ao? (What is the most important thing in the world?). So my
answer is: He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! (It is people! It is people! It is people!).