In his article, Teaching Classic Literature Classically,
Andrew Kurn summarizes the classical process of teaching in four stages:
clarifying the purpose, deliberating materials, reading contemplatively, and
teaching intentionally.
Kurn believes that the
ultimate purpose of a literature teacher is to cultivate wisdom and virtue and
I acknowledge this. The other stages however have triggered numerous questions
and reactions in my mind.
Kurn says that
teachers must select books with ‘virtues to imitate.’ I don’t exactly agree on
this as I think that the preference of materials must reflect the purpose of teaching.
If the purpose is to magnify beauty and goodness, then choose works with heroes
and their extraordinarily good deeds. If the goal is to open the learners'
minds to reality, choose pieces that don’t hold bars. As teachers, we often
want students to learn morals from texts but we have to remember that many
great literary pieces were not written with the same purpose. We cannot assume
and we must not teach students to assume that writers always want to instill
lessons in their works.
Kurn continues that
educators can choose between didactic (contemplating models) and Socrates
(exploring opinions) approaches, both of which are done inside the four corners
of the classroom. This raises another question: if we are teaching our students
about the study of life, why are we boxing their literary lives in the
classroom?
Students respond to
technology. They are more likely to read Facebook status and ‘like’ Instagram
photos rather than listen to ala-Socrates teachers sharing knowledge in
masterpieces of the past. They are more into seeing movie versions of the great
novels rather than read the book themselves. How are teachers going to cope up
with this budding need to be educated and entertained at the same time?
I have expected the
article to enlighten me on making classic literature less boring for learners,
given the advance technological age that we are in. However, it sticks to the
traditional way of teaching literature as it has promised in its title Teaching Classic Literature Classically
the last word now reads as ‘conventionally’. In this Digital Age, when
telephone companies and gadget manufacturers release new phones, computers,
softwares, and applications every week, and even a five-year-old kid knows how
to use iPad, Kurn’s idea of teaching Classic Literature the classic way seems
remotely outdated.
Apart from having
classic books downloadable as ebooks in iPhone, how else can classic literature
invade our learners’ lives?
“The
world has changed, the world is changing, the world will change. The more
things change, the more they stay the same.”
Isagani Cruz explains
this in his article, Teaching Literature
in The Philippine Star. Since the teaching of literature is a very old specialization, instead of
trying to come up with ‘new’ techniques, educators can improve old techniques
that are uploaded in the World Wide Web. What he does in his lectures is not
very far from what Kurn has mentioned in his article. Cruz has come up with his
own class paradigm called FREE (Feeding the text, Reading the text, Enhancing
the text, and Enjoying the text). He improves the ‘classic’ teaching by showing
different videos in class. He also divides the time allotted for
Socrates-discussion so learners will have enough time to discuss their opinions
in class, the author can ‘talk’ through the texts, and leaves 10 % of his time
for discussion. Most importantly, he emphasizes that ‘good literature teachers always relate a literary text, no matter how
old or foreign, to today’s newspaper headlines.’
Students can be asked
to ‘tweet’ significant lines from novels. They can be asked to blog about their
reactions on poetries. They can be asked to show photos that capture themes of
short stories.
Literature is a study
of life. Educators must not only aim to successfully deliver their literary
lessons to students. Their goal must be to let Literature influence the lives
of the learners. As Victor Ordoñez said, “We cannot equip the youth of the
future with the tools of the past.” The classic way of teaching is not totally
bad but it needs enhancement. If educators won’t be updated with the latest
trends in teaching Literature, students won’t find time to squeeze in ‘boring’
classics in their fast paced, technology-packed, highly interactive lives even when
their gadgets are practically full of Classic Literature ebooks.
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