9-2 Atwell Response

Atwell’s argument in the reading was one that, as a teacher, I have had to deal with many times. She claims that teachers, while stating a lesson concisely and/or using explicit instruction, also teach their students through implicit instruction. That is, it is sometimes the things we don’t say that our students are taking home to ponder.  

To exemplify her thesis, Atwell compiled a list of things that teachers do that are counterintuitive to their mission, one of which I have witnessed countless times. “Teachers are often bored of the literature they want you to read.” (pg 153)

In Korea, they have 2 types of schools: Public and private. But it is not set up the same way as it is in America. Here, we think, well, you go to private school or public school. In Korea, it’s like, you go to public school until 3:00, and then you go to several private academies until 10:00. As a teacher, you have to dig pretty deep to stand in front of a class and enthusiastically explain to exhausted 15 year old middle-schoolers that they are about to read an 800 page Greek poem about shit they don’t care about in a language they barely understand and have been breed into hating. But it is for these same reasons that it is so difficult that makes it so important.

This being said, Atwell’s system to counter this sort of instilled apathy is really quite admirable. Even though she receives scrutiny from peers and parents, she continues to use methodology that is designed around one thing exclusively: the benefit of her students.