A Teaching Philosophy

Note: I haven't done anything here for awhile because... well... I've been lazy about writing for pleasure. Or for any other purpose. My latest project (outside the normal school stuff) has been testing the waters in the community college job and private high school market, weighing some options. Inevitably, they ask for something called a Teaching Philosophy. Ugh. Such a statement, and cover letters, are about all the writing of consequence I've done of late. So, why not? Something to jump-start the writing habit?

Teaching should be a passion. It should be something one does because one cannot imagine anything more satisfying than the exchange of ideas in robust discussion. This, at least, is what has drawn me again and again to the teaching of history. Teaching was my first choice as a profession in high school more than twenty years ago, and though life diverted me temporarily, the desire to teach was always there. Indeed, as I look back over a varied career path, it was the jobs where teaching was an element of my job that were the most satisfying. It was the urge to teach history that drew me out of the corporate world and back into the academic world, a decision that has left me materially poorer, but richer in knowledge; it is a decision I have never regretted.

I approach the classroom as, I hope, my students approach it- as a learner. I cannot, alas, know everything there is to know about history and it is a constant surprise and pleasure to discover how much my students know that I might not expect. They sometimes teach me how to look at things in a way I had not before, and this is a joy to experience. The teaching experience is a learning experience not only through what happens in class, but what happens out of class. Preparation always brings up some new fact that seems to be a piece of a larger puzzle, one I cannot wait to put together with my students. Both of these require a sort of humility in the face of one's own ignorance, a humility that I sometimes struggle with but that, on my best days, I achieve to my own betterment and that of my students.

My own experience both as a student and a teacher has shown me that a successful class is an engaged one. To that end, I try every day to bring a high level of energy to my work. It does no good to be enthusiastic about history without projecting that enthusiasm and students- I remember this from when I was a student- are very good about picking up on false enthusiasm. Energy is required to create the positive learning environment that leaves both students and teachers certain that the time spent in class is time well spent.

Teaching history is little different from teaching anything else in the end. As a historian and a teacher, I want to show my students the grand arc of whatever subject I am teaching, provide them with the plot in which the people and events are story elements. I enjoy making connections in this regard and, through discussion, I encourage my students to make them as well. At all times I try to make them aware of the contingency of history, to make them aware that any given episode could have turned out differently, to make them aware of human agency throughout. History is not the result of vague, impersonal forces; it is the result of people doing things.

I recognize that, often, the Western Civilization or U.S. History class a student takes in his or her first or second year is the only academic contact with history that student has in college. As teachers, then, we should strive to use this opportunity to demonstrate history's relevance to their lives. I am constantly looking for ways to connect historical material to current events. No event is without a back story and it is the study of history that provides them with context.

One of the best ways I know to engage students is by showing them how history is done. Study of primary documents and writing about these documents is of supreme importance in this endeavor, as students learn how to marshal facts in support of an argument and how to present this argument clearly. The critical thinking and writing skills learned in this manner should, one hopes, attune students to the world around them, helping them better understand the media they consume.

I have always felt that, in order to learn and to avoid hidebound thinking, categories need to be destabilized. There must be a point where disciplines converge and it is impossible to move towards that point if disciplinary divides are rigidly policed. My goal as a history teacher has always been to help students breach the boundaries around the discipline and to bring their own experiences and disciplines to bear. Since my undergraduate degree was in philosophy, I use some of the tools I learned in that field. I also bring insights gleaned from my reading in the social and natural sciences and in other areas. I feel that the variety of my interests has translated well to my dealings with young college students who come with a variety of academic gifts and interests. I share with them an intense curiosity about the world and a desire to understand its workings. Together we teach each other to see the world anew, a process in which I can only serve as a facilitator.

These are the beliefs and attitudes that I bring as a teacher. I come expecting to learn as much as I teach. I believe in offering my students all of my energy and focus while I am in the classroom with them. I seek to emphasize trends and not events and to show the contingency of history which is the result of human agency. I strive to make history relevant by showing its impact on what is happening today. I attempt to demonstrate history's utility in developing critical thinking skills by making students, at least temporarily, into historians. I have never experienced anything so satisfying in my professional life as when all of these mesh together.