{"id":1697,"date":"2015-11-03T17:48:03","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T21:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2015-11-03T17:50:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T21:50:14","slug":"we-need-time-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=1697","title":{"rendered":"We Need Time Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

My daughter has been texting all weekend. \u00a0She has respected my rule not to text during worship, meals, or late at night. \u00a0Even within these guidelines, I find myself talking like a Saturday Night Live character named the Grumpy Old Man. The Grumpy Old Man skit involved Dana Carvey describing the good old days, when children did not have confounded cell phones. \u00a0Throwing up my hands in frustration, I did what any modern mommy does. \u00a0I turned to the internet. \u00a0Watching the musical number \u201cTelephone Hour\u201d<\/a> from the 1963 hit <\/span>Bye Bye Birdie<\/span><\/i> made me feel better. \u00a0What did we do before cell phones? \u00a0We tied up our household\u2019s landline for hours, talking about vastly important teen crushes. \u00a0At least I did. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I relate the story above, about telephones, in part to reassure readers that I am not against all technological communication. \u00a0Most of the time, I am not a caricature of the Grumpy Old Professor. \u00a0But, when a friend told me recently that the future of pedagogy is online education, I vowed to resist. \u00a0I am as opposed to this form of the future as I would be if a friend told me that the future of sex is online, or that the future of worship is online, or that the future of our friendship is online. \u00a0Learning \u2013 like friendship, worship, or sex \u2013 is a gift best shared with other human beings, face to face. \u00a0A song from the musician Red Grammar puts it well: \u201cIt\u2019s as simple a thing as the air that we breathe; we need time together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A school can avoid paying teacher salaries and basic benefits if they move toward distance education. \u00a0This is the ostensible reason that children in Durham are \u201ctaking classes\u201d online, with someone, somewhere, answering their typed-in questions. \u00a0Money is also the ostensible reason that Christians are working online for degrees through my own institution. \u00a0We sit in front of a computer, skyping, which means that we awkwardly see one another on a screen. \u00a0The display looks sort of like the television game show \u201cHollywood Squares.\u201d \u00a0I submit that the loss is not worth the monetary gain. \u00a0What we lose in online learning is fundamental to the gift of teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have taught a seminar on a Danish philosopher named S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard ten times during my sixteen years teaching at Duke. \u00a0We have read the same books* together, each iteration of this seminar, but every semester is different. \u00a0Classes are made up of people, and people are individuals, with snowflake-unique experiences and perspectives. \u00a0I learn something new that surprises me every time I teach, even when I am teaching a book for the umpteenth time. \u00a0A vital part of this gift is the trust that students build with one another over time. \u00a0The interactions in person matter, as we each let down our guard and risk showing confusion, or insight. \u00a0Body language matters for teaching. \u00a0If a student crosses his arms and scowls, I know I need to pause the conversation. \u00a0Has the conversation left him lost? \u00a0If he is lost, chances are someone else in the room is also lost, but trying to hide it. \u00a0This is one obvious example. \u00a0Good teachers learn to pick up subtle cues, to help each person in the class learn. \u00a0\u00a0Even if the class is about information \u2013 about facts \u2013 the classroom matters. \u00a0A geometry teacher learns how to teach geometry well by answering questions from befuddled students. \u00a0She may stay up late thinking about how better to explain a difficult concept and, the next year, she has a new pedagogical trick. \u00a0I may be able to see consternation on a student\u2019s face online, and some confused students will risk typing a question online. \u00a0But trust is best built minute by minute, session by session, in person. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We may enjoy the polished perfection of a carefully constructed TED talk on screen, but polished perfection is not the same as teaching live people to whom you are accountable and from whom you are learning. \u00a0Which brings me back to a question I asked last month in my essay against superheroes. \u00a0How can online learning be the \u201cfuture\u201d of education in a democracy? \u00a0A flourishing democracy requires not only a people filled up with facts, but people who have been formed to learn from one another by listening to distinct voices and hearing particular stories. \u00a0Sharing the task of learning with people who are different than you are is a hedge against tyranny. \u00a0This is one reason why we finally desegregated public schools across the United States. \u00a0Placing each student in front of her own little computer, interacting on screen, is a form of re-segregation. \u00a0The gift of time together is worth public support in a vigorous democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

[*] Blog editor’s note for the philosophically curious: Fear and Trembling, Repetition<\/em>, either\u00a0Stages on Life’s Way<\/em> or Philosophical Fragments<\/em>, and Works of Love<\/em>, in that order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My daughter has been texting all weekend. \u00a0She has respected my rule not to text during worship, meals, or late at night. \u00a0Even within these guidelines, I find myself talking like a Saturday Night Live character named the Grumpy Old Man. The Grumpy Old Man skit involved Dana Carvey describing the good old days, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[136,197,196],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","tag-kierkegaard","tag-online-education","tag-pedagogy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EotM-rn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1699,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1697\/revisions\/1699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}