On Literature and Teaching

  In a previous blog, I quoted Lars Svendsen in his ‘ The Philosophy of Boredom’ : ‘ Information and meaning are not identical. To simplify, one could say that meaning consists of assembling small parts which fit together to form a bigger whole, whereas information is the opposite ’. Any teacher worth their salt will have seen through this and will have related it to a well-known principle of learning: inductive vs. deductive methods. So let’s see whether this can be applied to reading books, too – and why it matters to do so. After all, 'meaning' is what we're after... As a reminder – and perhaps simplistically –   deduction is the formulating of examples from a rule; induction is the formulating of a rule from examples. In the class, deductive teaching often takes the form of a teacher writing/explaining a rule (e.g. How to form the present perfect) and asking learners to apply that rule across a body of examples/exercises. Inductive teaching would be learne

  ‘Sir, what does that story mean?’ ‘Sir, I don’t get it, why is he doing that in the book?’ ‘Tell me Mary, what’s the colour of the dog in the story?’ ‘John, why do you think the dog is of that colour?’ ‘Jan, if you were the main character, would you react this way, or that way? – and why?’ As teachers, we spend many hours asking questions – and yes, many hours giving answers, too, and many hours explaining, contextualising, deconstructing…and constructing. But ‘Asking questions’ is a bit of a vague expression really, when you consider that not all questions are identical. More importantly, the type of question you ask will give you back a certain type of answer. And the answer you have will not be an answer to everything – it might not even be the Answer, much less the-answer-you-wanted-to-hear . Of course, before even asking fitting questions, it’s important to keep in mind a couple of typical diseases we teachers often suffer from. For example, and it is one I suf

  What’s your reason for 'doing' literature in your class? What’s your reason for handing out this or that text? For doing this or that project around literature? For example, you have this great project in the bovenbouw, centred around the First World War – a staple of English classes in this country. WW1 saw a school of poetry emerge (the Great War poets, unsurprisingly) that other countries didn’t, or certainly not on the same scale. So out come Wilfried Owens, and Sassoon, and the Poppy Fields, and the sadness of it all. Out come the chronologies, and facts about that war, and tales of battles lost and won, and tales of death. But what, exactly, precisely, are your reasons for this project? Are these reasons to do with Literature-reading, literature-interpreting, literature-as-instrument? Or are the reasons to do with ideas about what learners should know historically and culturally? Is it to say 'War is bad, death is terrible', or do you want to explore the

  It is a remarkable fact of life that we can keep holding on to beliefs while professing we’re not. As Michel Foucault once said, we claim we believe in equality but deep down, we don’t, not really. We believe ourselves when we say it, we certainly do mean it, but there’s a nagging doubt at the back of our minds: is it true? Do I really believe that? It doesn’t have to be about something big, or important, or moral – it can be as general as saying everyone should be free to do what they want while not quite believing that some people should choose to do that . I mean: really? That’s how you spend your time? Well, ok, if that’s what you like… It reminds me of that bit of dialogue in the majestic, out-of-this-world-fantastic Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel ‘ The beginning of spring ’. Two people are talking: Frank, the main character and a woman he’s met through their social circles. They didn’t take to each other, and Frank sees her as a traditionalist living in the past. They’ve j