That's hilarious! "Teachers will be robots." Your writing was somewhat prophetic considering the advent of artificial intelligence. How true your comment that formal education involves significantly more than transferring information. I made a similar observation in "What a Teacher Can Add that Google Can't" (In All Things, 2016). Thanks for reminding us, Dave, not only about our worth as teachers, but also our call to humanize teaching and learning.
Your post reminds me of the robotic teaching I sometimes observed in student teachers who are told to follow a company curriculum script for teaching language arts or math. Honestly, this kind of teaching could better be done through a polished video than a human following a script. Note: I think that scripts can be really helpful. But if the teaching is not responsive to the responses of the students (even just the looks on their faces of comprehension or confusion), a key element in the teaching-learning exchange goes missing.
Kim, your comment about scripted curriculum really resonates with me. I agree that scripts can be helpful, especially for novice teachers. (I have a binder here in my office full of scripts I wrote for my middle school math lessons back in my first year of teaching!) But I totally agree about the potential of reducing the rich, complex, holistic work of true *teaching* to more of being a "technician"--robotically following the script. It's a good reminder for all of us, I think, about the good work we GET to do by engaging with real human beings in all of our own humanity.
That's hilarious! "Teachers will be robots." Your writing was somewhat prophetic considering the advent of artificial intelligence. How true your comment that formal education involves significantly more than transferring information. I made a similar observation in "What a Teacher Can Add that Google Can't" (In All Things, 2016). Thanks for reminding us, Dave, not only about our worth as teachers, but also our call to humanize teaching and learning.
https://inallthings.org/what-a-teacher-can-add-that-google-cant/
This is a great read, Al! Thanks for sharing it.
Your post reminds me of the robotic teaching I sometimes observed in student teachers who are told to follow a company curriculum script for teaching language arts or math. Honestly, this kind of teaching could better be done through a polished video than a human following a script. Note: I think that scripts can be really helpful. But if the teaching is not responsive to the responses of the students (even just the looks on their faces of comprehension or confusion), a key element in the teaching-learning exchange goes missing.
Kim, your comment about scripted curriculum really resonates with me. I agree that scripts can be helpful, especially for novice teachers. (I have a binder here in my office full of scripts I wrote for my middle school math lessons back in my first year of teaching!) But I totally agree about the potential of reducing the rich, complex, holistic work of true *teaching* to more of being a "technician"--robotically following the script. It's a good reminder for all of us, I think, about the good work we GET to do by engaging with real human beings in all of our own humanity.