[Previous entry: "imagery"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "grad school"]
06/27/2004 Archived Entry: "The Mean One"
Getting accused of being mean on TechRhet the other day reminds of me of how pedagogy and personality get intertwined. We grow used to the image of Paulo Freire-nice guy saving the underclass or Peter Elbow using touchy feeling tactics to get the best out of young writers (or what others have called the feminization of composition studies), but I'm more attracted to non-nice models: Bear Bryant and Bobby Knight.
These guys aren't really mean per se, but tough. And out of their toughness emerges serious concern for the well being of their players. Just because Bryant pushed guys to exhaustion doesn't mean he wasn't on their side. He was. But he knew how easily people give up or perform mediocre work (chalk that up also to my army experience and 25 mile hikes into the desert - you never know your true limits). Yeah Knight's got the temper problem (I'm not going to throw a chair in class!), but outside of that, same thing. He won three titles because he's a good teacher - even if he's tough.
So I'm into Bear Bryant pedagogy over Elbow "write what you feel."
That's not being mean. That's being "coach."
Got a problem with that?
Replies: 4 comments
Those are striking quotations for Fontes. I was thinking more about the problem of squandering Sanders' career, which is to acknowledge that it's never just a coach and a player in isolation, detached from the system (admin, ownership, program, rules, budget, schedule, and so on). Yes I am still coming to grips with No. 20's retirement.
Posted by Derek @ 06/28/2004 09:37 AM EST
Who called you mean?
I use sports metaphors and language in class all the time. But I'm not sure I've ever thought of myself as a coach. Hrm. I know a couple that I wouldn't want to be compared to.
Posted by cbd @ 06/27/2004 10:46 PM EST
Fontes?
Check out:
http://www.detnews.com/2004/lions/0406/08/h04-173381.htm
"Sure, I took some hits, the Big Buck. I wasn’t afraid to come back and say we weren’t good enough. I knew I had to take hits when I said stuff like that. I told the truth. I told it like it was. ... I loved it. I enjoyed it."
That's like me saying: You call that an essay? You call that a web project? Where's the research? Is that six weeks worth of work? You can do better. Get back out there!
Posted by j @ 06/27/2004 09:08 PM EST
Well, and then there was Wayne Fontes.
Re Bobby Knight, it was always the four-letter word that bothered him: refs.
Definite grounds for an NCTE-flavored Quizilla here--which sports coach's style best characterizes your pedagogy?
Posted by Derek @ 06/27/2004 08:10 PM EST