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   StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 01:52:20 JST StillIRise1963

   I’m NO LONGER EXPLAINING THE OBVIOUS TO ANYONE. I’M SICK OF IT.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 01:52:19 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @StillIRise1963
     Something I’ve learned in my years of teaching:

     The only person who can do the learning is the student. You can’t really “teach” anything, at least not in the sense of placing knowledge inside someone’s head like items in a box. Humans don’t work that way.

     All a teacher can do is provide an environment with a rich mixture of challenge, discomfort, encouragement, and helpful resources, and let students find the learning they need for themselves when they’re ready.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 01:54:20 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @StillIRise1963
     This involves offering students a painful amount of unearned trust, and it requires constantly seeing potential learning that didn’t happen because they just weren’t ready for it.

     And all that is what teaching feels like when you’re doing it •well•.

     I so keenly recognize the frustration of your post. Teaching is Groundhog Dog, Myth of Sisyphus. I don’t know if all this is helpful, but I hope it helps ease the frustration at least a tiny bit.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 04:02:37 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @StillIRise1963
     My mom (retired English prof) often quotes a colleague who taught freshman composition year after year after year, who once said (self-mockingly, to be clear) of all the new students who arrived each year: “I’ve been teaching this class for so long! Don’t they ever learn •anything•?!”

     One racist finally takes one tiny step toward self-improvement, and there’s another one right behind them at square zero. Over and over, forever. This is the work, I guess.

   • Embed this notice
     StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 04:02:38 JST StillIRise1963

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands This is true. All true. People say stupid, idiotic, racist fucking bullshit and then respond the same way when confronted with their fucking ignorance and faux progressive nonsense. I get tired. I’m almost 61 years of TIRED of it.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 04:37:39 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @StillIRise1963
     Yeah. It just always seems to be the way of things that even more of the burden keeps falling to those who are already carrying it.

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     StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 04:37:40 JST StillIRise1963

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands Yep. And, some days that’s okay, other days, not so much.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 04:57:05 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @StillIRise1963 Yup, that’s just it.

   • Embed this notice
     StillIRise1963 (stillirise1963@mastodon.world)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 04:57:07 JST StillIRise1963

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands “No rest for the weary" is what my mom says.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 05:09:42 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • sortius

     @sortius @StillIRise1963
     This teacher with a Montessori heart nods approvingly

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     sortius (sortius@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 30-Sep-2024 05:09:43 JST sortius

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @StillIRise1963 my dad was a fairly well renowned education expert in Asia, and something he drummed into me is that our education systems are prescriptive Edwardian systems, and we need to move to a student-led learning model, where "teachers" are facilitators