Teaching and Learning

Teaching is both an art and a science. It calls upon us to be good. It summons us to be kind as an act of giving.  It requires us to know the subject-matter, our students and ourselves. It has models and trends.  It cannot be done without ever vigilant learning.  It is an action that pulls and pushes us. It consumes us and fills us up.

In teaching, we can shape learning but we cannot control it.  Learning will happen whether we are there or not.  Yet often, it cannot seem to take place without us.  When we teach, we start with objectives.  Students tow along working to choose and pursue their own learning goals and interests.  Learning can be vast and at the same time small.It is an act both formalized and institutionalized.  It happens at work among colleagues and at home with family and friends. Despite our attempts to organize it, learning is innately social, and very human. It occurs over distances and everywhere two people can be found.