On Literature and Teaching

  Alan Bennett’s The uncommon reader has the Queen of England visit a moving library, and towards the end of this short novel, Bennett writes: ‘ it occurred to her that reading was, among other things, a muscle and one that she had seemingly developed ’. Like any other muscle, she had developed it by exercising it – by using it repeatedly. Because we learn to read at school, and because we spend so much time reading words (on paper, on screen, on social media, on the street), this ‘exercising’ seems redundant: we’re all constantly flexing that muscle, ergo we’re all pretty good at using it (barring adverse circumstances of course: local, geo-political, educational, cognitive). In fact, we’re so good at it, generally speaking, that we do not really think about the reading we’re doing: we’re not reading the words so much as their meaning. It’s a bit like an instrument: you’re not listening to the tuba, you’re listening to the music played by the tuba – you’re not reading the words,

  I work in an area – Education – where the latest developments in AI technology have had an immediate impact – and yes, the same has happened across the board, I know. Since last year and Chatgpt’s arrival on the world scene, everyone – from pupils to students and teachers – has been using it. By ‘Everyone’ I obviously do not mean literally everyone, but it is clear that will soon be the case. Pupils use it to get their homework done, or pass tests; students ditto ; teachers to prepare lessons, develop material, design tests and have them marked – among many other things. Unsurprisingly, all those people claim that technology is great and helpful – well, they would, wouldn’t they? And to be fair, ‘great’ and ‘helpful’ are reasonable words to use in this case. So that’s not the problem. Equally unsurprisingly, those users will make sure to remind you of two things at all times: AI is not intelligent as we know and understand that word – it’s mindless, really – just a machine.

I said last week that a distinction needs to be made between a Readable text and a Teachable one. Of course, my approach to using fiction in class (which you can read more about here ) puts a premium on developing critical thinking, awareness of the other and, generally speaking, focuses on aspects of citizenship, so those will be my criteria. In that sense, ‘Teachable’ means (but I simply repeat what I wrote earlier) a text that offers guidance and nuances, while leaving space for the reader to co-create the meaning of the text. And it is in that act of co-creation that a mind can flourish – that is, open up. This act of opening up is paramount here, since it really means ‘ Shifting your perspective ’, ‘ Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes ’, ‘ Trying to think like someone else ’, ‘ Trying to understand someone else ’ (among others). Those things require, from the reader, a certain dose of curiosity and willingness of course, something we teachers are here to foster,

 There's a science-fiction short-story (by Asimov I think, but I'm not too sure - it could be David Brin) in which an Artificial Intelligence has been put in charge of the world. One of the things it does (among many, i.e. everything) is answer any question anyone may have: about the weather outside, the size of Mars, how much cake is eaten per day or what a word means. In short, the AI takes care of everything, including providing knowledge and information. In a time of Chatgpt, connected coffee-machines and self-replenishing fridges, I guess that story sounds old-hat. The point of it, though, is that one day the AI stops working - I cannot remember why, but it does. Forget about the food supply, machine-led agriculture, weather control and such considerations: the story focuses on what happens to people when their questions cannot be answered immediately. As you can imagine, those people are lost - they just don't know what to do, how to react, they have none of the knowl