a different kind of English teacher

Okay, So I’m a Different Kind of English Teacher

I apologize if my English classes are different than expected, though many students like the difference. Yes, we do documentation, reading, and writing, like other English classes; in fact, we may read more than most classes do. Yet what is writing? Writing is thinking on paper and sharing knowledge or insights, arrived at by learning and thinking.  So why not emphasize learning, knowledge, and thinking?  Most English classes focus on the writing—correctness, organization, phrasing/language, etc—all of which are important, but the content and thinking therein are the substance and are more important.  Why paint and polish a car that does not run?  Why shine the China if there is no food? Why care more about silverware than nutritional substance?  Most English teachers leave the learning and expansion of knowledge to other classes. Too risky!  I say, let our readings be to learn relevant knowledge.  If we are to write, let’s first read to learn and then learn to think about what we read and practice sorting the valuable from the questionable, fact from fiction, and truth from clever phrasing, and then write something meaningful, instead of drab assignment filler.  I reject the presently popular academic notion of relative truth. Truth exists independent of man’s various states of understanding it and of our being quite clueless of some dimensions of it to date.  Nevertheless, after much searching, reading, thinking, learning, more reading, and more thinking, then let’s write what has emerged from the searching and sifting to be worth writing about.  A lot of work?  Perhaps, but much more interesting, meaningful, and valuable than polishing engineless cars.  The writings that are most sought say something.  Surviving the test of time requires quality, significant new knowledge, or insights beyond the usual collective misinformation or the latest in brain-washing spin.

Most English teachers emerge from a love for literature and writing.  In contrast, I switched from math and science to linguistics and ESL/composition instructor.  I try not to call English the after-math, but after math, physics, chemistry, music, and history, I must admit that English was my least favorite subject in high school. However, after learning other languages and becoming a linguist, I realized that English is also interesting when viewed through linguists’ eyes.  In fact, I have long said that “English teachers know Literature, but linguists know English” which is clarified in the article “The Subconscious Mind’s Role in Language Acquisition” (below), whose details most English teachers are not aware of. (Yes, a preposition IS something one can end a sentence with, as Germanic languages were doing it long before Latin became the enthroned standard of falsely enforced grammar.)

            In addition, English or language is a vehicle to all knowledge presently available.  The universe is one’s campus when one loves to learn.  From universe is the word university.  So don’t let classes limit your learning.  Get the homework done, and then enjoy learning much more on your own.  Those who do homework get degrees, while those who love to learn get a life–a life so much more exciting than the lifeless ruts of longing for the next holiday like most mere holders of jobs attain.  If you want an exciting life, learn to love to learn and every day becomes exciting.

            Drugs and alcohol may offer a brief feel-good stupor with mind-weakening consequences, misery-magnifying misjudgments, or life-ending mistakes, but one can love learning without limits, to be enjoyed every day (or as much as one can find time for) with joys and enrichments that expand one’s mind, earnings, and enjoyments of life. 

            So dive in and enjoy a life of learning!  A decade or two can put you at the top of a field of knowledge.  In high school I found physics, math, and chemistry most fascinating, and each has been useful.  I later grew fond of learning Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian, Aramaic, Spanish, a few dozen Native American languages, and became a linguist.  The research projects that I want to do in that field alone total about 500 years, so I have more than enough exciting endeavors to fill a few lifetimes.  I also enjoy history, geology, and music enough to spend a life on each, if I could, but life is short.  So explore a few fields, then enjoy the awe and wonders in one or three, and be so much happier than the masses who wait for Fridays or see winning the lottery as the best escape from a lack-luster life.  Yes, love learning as long as you live and you'll love life as long as you live it!
           Traditional English teachers have occasionally thought me weird enough to question whether I am a real English teacher or not, because I do not rummage through the traditional ruts that many feel obligated to draw from. I have published several articles (research papers) in professional journals with thumbs up from the referees most knowledgeable in the world on the topic, and I wrote and published a highly sought reference book, equivalent to a 1000-page, double-spaced research paper with a bibliography of several hundred sources.  So yes, I do know how to write a research paper. As for essays and non-research-writing, one can judge my newspaper columns found at http://anecdotes2antidotes.blogspot.com. Yet I cannot blame those who doubt my English-teacher-ness, for even I can detect that I am "different" from the traditional mold, almost feeling out of place as a math-science major who would dare dilute the feel-good, anything-goes, heart-warming humanities with cold clear logic. Of course, logic looms in literature too, but must necessarily be hidden in enough layers to justify the existence of literary analysis, which would otherwise have nothing to do if it were all spelled out as clearly as science requires. Perhaps I should quit while I'm ... or rather, before I'm told that I never was ahead. I must admit that I am a different kind of English teacher. But why not use the law of the pendulum's relevance to sprinting as an analogy for the frequent misjudgments of the uninformed who think that long legs have an advantage and the equally frequent misjudgments of the masses in so many other things--misjudgments due to a lack of thinking and lack of knowledge?  Why not explain Einstein's theory of relativity as typical of less obvious truths completely missed by the masses? Why not teach them as much about thinking and discovering as about writing, since that is what writing is--thinking and discoveries on paper? I'm sorry, but I can hardly help being a different kind of English teacher.