Good Teaching is Like Pornography

A professor once told me that good teaching is like pornography; both are tough to define, but you definitely know it when you see it. We often want to simplify things so that they offer solutions for us in nice neat packages, but in arenas that rely on artful skill, it rarely works that way. Take the statue of David by Michelangelo for instance. Here is a fully nude man in an openly public place. If a person where to do that, it would be indecent and considered pornography, but because he is sculpted he becomes one of the greatest works ever and people take pictures with him. So where is the line between art and porn? It's tough to say and depends highly on the material and the audience.

Teaching is exactly the same; good teaching is anyway. It would be simple to say "just do this with your class and they will learn," but that will never hold true. Good teaching is highly dependent on the material and the audience. What works in one class, will bomb with another. What works one day, may fail tomorrow. The art is not in the execution of good teaching, but in recognizing what connects with the audience and delivering that. I recently visited Mrs. Lopez-Hodges's Spanish for Native Speakers II class and while I could only understand a little of what was being said during the observation, I knew that what I saw was good teaching. Students communicated with the teacher, responded to one another and through their mannerisms, I saw relationships, thinking, challenge and effort. I didn't need to understand it; I knew it, because I saw it.

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I think that good teaching should not only be recognized by students, parents and administrators. Good teaching should be recognized by fellow teachers as well. If you have seen good teaching lately, let a fellow teacher know. It will mean a lot to them that a fellow artist has recognized great work.