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My Educational Philosophy |
Excerpts from "The Higher Yearning"The greatest learning experiences, for me, were almost always the greatest personal experiences. It is hard to know which came first: interest in what was said or interest in the sayer. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" More often than not, it is in a shy and repressed passion . . . that we find the source of greatest creativity. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" If an instructor is both stupid and hostile, apparently, we can trust him—and only then. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" If there is "power" in academic rank, for instance, there is power in youth too—in physical attractiveness, in energy. There is power, even, in yet-to-be-fulfilled promise—power in time. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" Legend has it that love is blind. And lust is blind. Just sometimes, though, they are clairvoyant. They take the glaze from our eyes. They prompt us to look through the odd, unfamiliar exterior of our neighbors and detect a familiar soul, a soul with which, to our surprise, we can communicate. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" To say that chemistry between a student and a teacher distracts from learning is like saying that color distracts from seeing. It does not distract; it enlivens, enhances, intensifies: it fixes the gaze. It gives teeth to the eyes, a digestive tract to the brain. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" Teacher-student chemistry is what sparks much of the best work that goes on at universities, today as always. It need not be reckless; it need not be realized. It need not even be articulated, or mutual. In most cases, in fact, it is none of these. In most cases, academic eros works from behind the scenes. It lingers behind the curtain and ensures that the production on stage is strong. It ensures that the work in the classroom is charged, ambitious, and vigorous. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" In our own period . . . teaching is required to be sterile before it can be viewed as respectable. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning" Knowledge is unremittingly personal: the best students fall in love with teachers; the most engaged teachers respond strongly—and variously—to students. ~ Cristina Nehring, "The Higher Yearning"
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