4 thoughts on “Aristotle And A Leather Jacket: An Example of Concept-Centered Teaching

  1. Thank you, Tim. I appreciate your writing for many reasons but especially for compelling me to examine my practice in a way that I have not done in a long while!

  2. Thanks for this Susan! I wrote a long reply to this before but it seems not to have taken to the website. Oops…me and technology. Something about having great mentors during my early career…the
    Johnson clan included. Best!

  3. I actually got to lead a student I was tutoring through The Outsiders a few weeks ago, and am sad to say that ALL of the pointless aspects of “comprehension-centered” teaching were in full bloom.

    Your attack here is beautiful and clear — and, more importantly, powerful! Often arguments for this kind of education can seem “boutique” and optional. But you throw down the gauntlet:

    “These kinds of quizzes reek of power, serving little more than to bend the behaviour of children towards compliance with their teachers’ wills. They reflect a trifling understanding of what counts as human understanding. What’s worse, they are boring and actually promote disengagement by profoundly underestimating the depth and quality of children’s thinking.”

    Hear, hear!

  4. It’s really just a matter of creating (emotional, intellectual, ethical, physical, aesthetic…) spaces where children can tell you what’s really going on. “Bob’s Mustang was blue? Well, my dog is black and white and he barks too much for my liking. What else ya got?”

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