Activity 1.5 William James' Talks to Teachers, Preface - Chapter 4

Activity 1.5 William James’ Talks to Teachers, Preface – Chapter 4

Preface:

James wants teachers to understand the mental life, and accept the individuality of our students. He states there is no, one, absolute truth, religiously or philosophically, and we, as teachers, must have “democratic respect for the sacredness of individuality” (v) in our classrooms.  James talks about how the truth is too great for one mind to understand and that it takes many minds to “know the whole of it” and that “there is no point of view absolutely public and universal”(vi).  I have had numerous discussions, or arguments, with family members about this concept of “absolute truth”. These people believed that there were absolute truths about God and Jesus, and the bible was proof of these truths. They claimed that people could only get to heaven if they accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Three of them were/are missionaries, in Beijing and Uganda. I asked that if people had never had the chance to have their souls saved by missionaries, why God would punish the innocent by not allowing them into heaven. I had a stillborn baby in 1984, and one family member insisted that he was not in heaven. They claimed that since he had not been baptized, he would be in “limbo”. Again, why would God punish the innocent? I did not believe their truths to be absolute or universal. My truth was very different from theirs, and our students will have different truths from ours. We need to respect our students and their religious and philosophical differences.

Chapter 1:

I think the main gist of this chapter is that one does not have to “know psychology” to be a good teacher. Pedagogy and psychology can be congruent ideologies; one does not dominate over the other. James states that teachers need to know only the general fundamentals of the workings of the mind or “mental machine” of their pupils. This makes me think of the soccer coaches my kids had from ages four through high school. Some were great and some were horrible. We recognized that being an elite soccer player at one time, did not automatically equate to becoming a good coach. This may be the case in every sport. The opposite also occurs, when a mediocre player, or one that sat the bench, becomes a champion coach.

Chapter 2:

James states that there is a general fact that whether we are awake or asleep, we are experiencing some type of consciousness. Within these streams, waves or fields of consciousness we experience “focal” and “marginal” objects of sensations or thoughts, which may be continually rearranging. The discussion about “simple ideas of sensation and reflection”, or the “theory of ideas” (9) introduced by Locke, reminded me of Piaget’s constructivist theories of schema development, where we assimilate and accommodate new knowledge throughout our lives. James calls them bricks, or they could be blocks that build up our mental architecture.

 Chapter 3:

In this chapter, James continues the discussion of the stream of consciousness, stating that it has two functions: the theoretical leads to knowledge, while the practical leads to action. He feels that as teachers we will most often emphasis the practical function and that our “professional task” is to “train the pupil to behavior”, whether it be positive or negative. Toddlers are told what to do and what not to do, and are given consequences for their behaviors. As they continue to grow, parents and teachers are providing them with skills that will serve them, practically, to function throughout life, teaching them how to behave and follow rules. As they become adolescents, students may become more interested in a theoretical ideals, knowledge and emotions, but they may become more impulsive and challenge authority, thus more consequences for their choices, good or bad.

Chapter 4:

In this chapter, James defines education, “in short, as, the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior” (15). I think this is a funny definition, but it may be true that that is all we really want of our citizens, to behave! What I want to point out is that different cultures, ethnic groups, neighborhoods, peer groups, for example, have different standards of appropriate behavior or conduct. What may be necessary and practical skills for survival in an inner city ghetto, maybe foreign in a small rural, farming community. A ‘street smart” education may be essential for staying alive in many places or cultures, such as women living in a Muslim society.