He holds onto a idealistic (and entirely possible) vision of student as learner and writer as always growing/adapting/changing. Distinguishing learning from recieving academic credit, Haswell reminds that "if learning continues, standards and status change" (17). He embraces change in his vision of education and encourages flexible pedagogical standards that can reach a range of student abilities. I think he is right on in addressing how "All students enter all courses in medias res, all are on alien ground" (17).
He also brought me back to being surprised at myself for wanting to become a teacher after spending all thirteen years of my compulsory education terrorizing teachers. I never want to be a disciplinarian. It doesn't work. In fact, it's more fun for the trouble-maker. The way that Haswell looks at growth and learning, you could say that my high school teachers did succeed in teaching me: how to deal with boredom by causing trouble. It's true, no matter what the teacher's goals/aspirations are, the actual experience of the student-- the real student in the real class situated in a real contextual reality-- is the bottom line that determines what was taught and how successful it was. I bet it's easier to say now than to remember later, but I plan to try.
His perspective is realistic, purposeful and refreshing. He even reminds that shushing side conversations could be less productive than many teachers assume. "More often than we assume, as the ethnographer Robert Brooke found out by joining the back row, such talk is following up ideas introduced by the teacher: 'The students are developing their own stances towards class activity, not whispering about unrelated subjects like parties and dates'" (33).
Back to my rant on purpose (http://humboldtkendra.googlepages.com):
If the purpose of education is to provoke learning, authority is only one perspective on how to achieve it. There are many others.
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