Question of the Week: Teaching 8 June 2008
Posted by SA'ILA in Psychology, SA'ILA.trackback
Is it possible to effectively teach a subject you don’t believe in?
CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM REFLECTIONS ON THE BREADTH OF LIFE
Is it possible to effectively teach a subject you don’t believe in?
no.
i’m sure it depends to some degree on what you’re teaching. if it’s a craft, you have to at least believe in its efficacy (”this clay will turn into a kettle that doesn’t leak”) even if you’re not passionate about it in a “pottery is zen!” kind of way. if it’s an art (poetry, classical piano) and especially if it’s a way of life (islam, yoga, ayn rand, kung fu), i think you have to believe in it in the strong sense of the word.
which raises the more complicated question (and perhaps the one you had in mind) of how do we teach (or learn) something that we want to appreciate even if we cannot accept it? catholicism for a muslim, for example, or abstinence for a hedonist, or walt whitman for a sober person.