In Light Of

this virtual residency,

the Carl Andre exhibit I just experienced,
all of a sudden missing Ana Mendieta more,
searching for the 50 Steps exercise, which I just found after looking for it for over 2 hours, after
finding so many notes, articles, letters from workshops from 1996 onward (!), I am totally overwhelmed and also totally energized. I realized this weekend that I haven't necessarily taken my studio practice that seriously, and have not truly fulfilled my own potential as an artist. This isn't a self judgment; I can see it in my work. 
How can I change this? 
What can I throw away? 
What can I keep? 
Do I believe in what I'm doing?
What are my references? 
What am I studying? 
Why am I an artist? 
What am I commenting on? 
What do I want to say?

Neil Postman came to mind, especially The End Of Education. So I looked him up to find out more about his work. I didn't realize he helped craft the Inquiry Method for teaching and learning. So interesting!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Teaching as a Subversive Activity)

Inquiry education (sometimes known as the inquiry method) is a student-centered method of education focused on asking questions. Students are encouraged to ask questions which are meaningful to them, and which do not necessarily have easy answers; teachers are encouraged to avoid giving answers when this is possible, and in any case to avoid giving direct answers in favor of asking more questions. The method was advocated by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in their book Teaching as a Subversive Activity.

The inquiry method is motivated by Postman and Weingartner's recognition that good learners and sound reasoners center their attention and activity on the dynamic process of inquiry itself, not merely on the end product of static knowledge. They write that certain characteristics are common to all good learners (Postman and Weingartner, 31–33), saying that all good learners have:

• Self-confidence in their learning ability
• Pleasure in problem solving
• A keen sense of relevance
• Reliance on their own judgment over other people's or society's
• No fear of being wrong
• No haste in answering
• Flexibility in point of view
• Respect for facts, and the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion
• No need for final answers to all questions, and comfort in not knowing an answer to difficult questions rather than settling for a simplistic answer

In an attempt to instill students with these qualities and behaviors, a teacher adhering to the inquiry method in pedagogy must behave very differently from a traditional teacher. Postman and Weingartner suggest that inquiry teachers have the following characteristics (pp. 34–37):

• They avoid telling students what they "ought to know".
• They talk to students mostly by questioning, and especially by asking divergent questions.
• They do not accept short, simple answers to questions.
• They encourage students to interact directly with one another, and avoid judging what is said in student interactions.
• They do not summarize students' discussion.
• They do not plan the exact direction of their lessons in advance, and allow it to develop in response to students' interests.
• Their lessons pose problems to students.
• They gauge their success by change in students' inquiry behaviors (with the above characteristics of "good learners" as a goal).

References[edit]

• Postman, Neil, and Weingartner, Charles (1969), Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Dell, New York, NY.

Further reading[edit]

• Awbrey, Jon, and Awbrey, Susan (1995), "Interpretation as Action: The Risk of Inquiry", Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 15, 40-52.Eprint