I was recently reading The Agony and the Ecstacy, an historical fiction book about Michelangelo's life as a sculptor. The author explains through the eyes of Michelangelo how a good sculptor cannot just begin carving wherever he or she wants to, but has to understand the 'life' of the marble and recognize its uniqueness before responding to it. I believe looking at scuplting in this way explains some of my views on teaching. Note: This metaphor of sculpting does not include such phrases as 'sculpting' and 'molding' the children's minds. Rather I see this relationship as one that requires the sculptor to understand the marble like a teacher must understand their student before deciding what is best for them. We talk in the Ed School a lot about being a reflective and responsive teacher who knows their students and makes decisions based on observations. I believe a sculptor acts in a similar way with its subject.
When sculpting, like teaching,one must recognize the indivuality and uniqueness of a rock. This can be a sinlge student or be compared to a whole class. Then the sculptor must make reflective decisions on where is the best place to start and which tools would best fit the job. As teachers we need to assess prior knowledge to understand a student and make similar decisions of where to start and what 'tools' would be most effective in reaching the goal. A sculptor cannot not start his job without knowing the end product or goal, while we as teachers need to be responsive, we need to have a plan and trajectory of where we are going with the class and student.
There are obviously many ways to look at teaching and not all of them are perfect. The place in this metaphor where I start to disagree is in viewing the act of learning. I do not believe the act of learning is a passive 'molding' act. Rather, I think the student must be active in their learning to make it memorable. That said, I also believe that teachers can make an impact on students and can really make a difference on their attitudes, beliefs and knowledge. We like sculptors should have a plan but be responsive and know our students.
