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Guest Editor's Introduction: Teaching to the Choir

Guest Editor's Introduction: Teaching to the Choir Guest Editor’s Introduction Teaching to the Choir Barbara Schneider As one of twenty-five faculty members identified as teachers of excellence, I was invited to lunch a year ago by the new president of our university. Being mindful of the critique of excellence made by Readings (1996) and others, I wanted to explain that I was not a teacher of excellence, but a teacher of writing and writing teachers. There was no chance to do so, and I was not going to turn down a free lunch because of momentary discomfort with a term I am sure was meant as a compliment, so I just accepted it and sat down. After we had been overfed, the president spoke briefly of his own love of teaching and the debt he owed to the teachers he had encountered along the way to becoming a surgeon. He then invited us to share our own stories of teaching. Most of my colleagues immediately recognized the occasion as epideictic, calling for speeches celebrating the deep pleasures of engaging with inquisitive students, recalling the moments when former students dropped by to share their successes or mourn their losses, and confirming our communal commitment to the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture Duke University Press

Guest Editor's Introduction: Teaching to the Choir

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References (3)

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
© 2008 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1531-4200
eISSN
1531-4200
DOI
10.1215/15314200-2008-002
Publisher site
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Abstract

Guest Editor’s Introduction Teaching to the Choir Barbara Schneider As one of twenty-five faculty members identified as teachers of excellence, I was invited to lunch a year ago by the new president of our university. Being mindful of the critique of excellence made by Readings (1996) and others, I wanted to explain that I was not a teacher of excellence, but a teacher of writing and writing teachers. There was no chance to do so, and I was not going to turn down a free lunch because of momentary discomfort with a term I am sure was meant as a compliment, so I just accepted it and sat down. After we had been overfed, the president spoke briefly of his own love of teaching and the debt he owed to the teachers he had encountered along the way to becoming a surgeon. He then invited us to share our own stories of teaching. Most of my colleagues immediately recognized the occasion as epideictic, calling for speeches celebrating the deep pleasures of engaging with inquisitive students, recalling the moments when former students dropped by to share their successes or mourn their losses, and confirming our communal commitment to the

Journal

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture – Duke University Press

Published: Oct 1, 2008

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