after John Cage
1. only ask the questions to which you really need answers
2. demonstrate uncertainty
3. reconstruct for your students your own previous errors of thought and elucidate to your students what factors lead to a changed mind
4. do not let the terms with which you understand the world get in the way of understanding it
5. give up any desire to be the smartest person in the room
6. remember that students have bodies and that bodies require movement, sustenance, rest, and relief
7. leave an inheritance of dialectic
8. preserve and sustain whatever delusions you’ve found necessary to behave in good faith
9. every student is a genius
10. do not be afraid to state the obvious
11. a socratic bully is still a bully
12. thoroughly prepare class, including making preparations to abandon your preparations entirely
13. listen with your body
14. suspect charisma
15. conduct yourself in such a way that your students can eventually forget that you exist
Anne Boyer, poet & teacher
[NOTE: This, marvellous, piece was originally written in 2015 quite independently of this project. Someone drew it to my attention recently and I contacted Anne Boyer who has kindly allowed its reproduction here. Michael]