Practical Paideia

Lindsey Ralls (Summit Christian Academy)

Today I substituted for 8th and 10th grade Latin. I actually don’t know any Latin (it was not a course option for the Upper School back in the day), so I went into it thinking that because I didn’t have the skills needed to teach the subject, the students would probably walk away having not learned very much.

Boy was I wrong.

The Latin teacher kept them busy the entire 90 minutes, regardless of the fact that she wasn’t actually in the room. They studied for an upcoming quiz, they translated large sections of a story, and they quizzed one another on their vocabulary. There was independent work, group work, and paired work. Sometimes they would move through an aspect of the assignment quickly, and at other times they relied on one another to figure it out. 

John Milton Gregory makes the (arguably bold) statement that the true function of a teacher is to create the most favorable conditions for learning. I don’t know about you but if someone were to ask me what I do, this is probably not how I would respond. Generally when we think about our role as a teacher, we think that it’s to teach! To instruct, to instill knowledge, to explain, and to lecture. Milton though makes another bold claim when he says that we “teach best when we teach least“. 

Think about the last thing that you learned. Chances are it was self-taught. No one taught you how to sew, or how to play the guitar, or how to make really good chili. Generally, the things that we are most passionate about are things that we have taught ourselves. How then do we create a classroom with the most favorable conditions for learning, with the goal that our students will take an active role in their own learning?

Our Latin teacher accomplished this by keeping her students engaged (allowing them to work together on certain assignments), providing them with support (remember to refer to page 102 if you get stuck), and creating a classroom with structure (her students knew exactly what was expected of them, even though she wasn’t there).