William Schlegel

Teaching is a calling, a sacred responsibility, and an honor. By taking on the task of teaching students I thereby have a responsibility for their learning. Ultimately, I think one of the most important aspects of that responsibility is to engage the students, that is to interest them in the subject material by making it relevant.

Students best build knowledge outward from a schema as they are exposed to new information. learning is a process which is naturally interest driven, though we can become interested in anything if we build up to it. To learn; students must love learning and be allowed to love learning. It is not enough to learn to read, one must also learn to love reading. It’s not enough to learn science, one must get joy from the process of discovery, and that it’s not enough to learn mathematics- one must discover how fun it is to solve mathematical puzzles. I believe that the most effective way for them to do this is to follow their interests. However, I also believe that students should be exposed to a depth of history and culture. Further that they must be good citizens of a democracy and both participate in and understand how a civil democratic society works.

A person should know the information that they most commonly use be that thousands of species of plants or the basic ecological attributes of common range grasses. This includes both facts and concepts. Concepts might include big ideas like climate change, ecology, and biogeography. Concepts should also include relatively smaller ideas like how seeds imbibe and germinate to become new plants. I believe that self-knowledge and a level-headed ability to think clearly about one’s place in the world is of great benefit, particularly when your goal is to affect change.

We cannot know everything, and a good preparation must include many things which are practical. Chief among these are to develop the skills of learning, how to find information in a book or online, how to do a literature search, and how to do science. Knowledge is fluid and everchanging. To build and maintain a deep background and to adapt we must constantly be learning new things- which is where knowledge about how to obtain knowledge, such as by Googling, is critical. Also, important here are the skills of communicating what you have learned, public speaking, and how to write and that the improvement of writing skills is ongoing. Students interested in the sciences should understand that a scientist’s work involves a great deal of writing.  Part of student’s practical preparation should be to understand that our planet has finite resources, that those resources have limits, that it is probable we will run into some of those limits in their lifetimes and that there are potentially both social and technological fixes for those problems. I want them to understand that their knowledge and resources can help them to prepare for a future which may be either or both uncertain and fantastic. 

                From that same perspective students must have an impractical preparation that allows them to be deeply imaginative. There is value here in the great books and a liberal arts education. A deep understanding of both western and non-western history, literature, art, mathematics, and science is generally a good thing. They must know history, they must read fiction, ultimately, they must love learning for intrinsic reasons without necessarily having a set goal or anything to gain.

                All students can learn a great deal of information but more importantly they are all capable of learning the skills of how to learn. To learn students, especially once they are adolescents, must have buy in. That is; they must believe that what they are learning is relevant, important to their lives, and interesting to continue to pursue it. Therefore, it is essential that we recognize them, treat them as equals, and teach them as individuals. Only by developing in them a deep field of knowledge will our society have a future.