If the roles were reversed between an instructor and I ... by Joshua

If the roles were reversed between an instructor and I ... by Joshua - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

If the roles were reversed between a teacher or professor and I, the subject I would most like to teach would probably have to be a literature class. Literature has always been an interesting subject to me because it is many times interpreted by different people in different ways. Everybody comes from unique experiences and understands things differently. In literature when asked critical questions that require critical thinking or the readers use of past experiences or personal knowledge different kinds of people will come up with various answers. Some people may read a sentence and interpret it into a literal meaning and some may see it figuratively. It would be interesting to try to teach people how certain things can appear when reading any kind of literary work and to try to understand how each of my students thinks and/or feels about what they have read. While I admit Literature probably isn't my favorite subject, it has always been the most interesting to me personally because of the different insights that people will give. Somebody could come up with something that you might not ever think of or see in that way. I'm sure that teaching a class in which people may have such different viewpoints or even conflicting view points at times could be very challenging, but the best way to learn about other people is by listening to them in my opinion.

If given the opportunity to switch roles with an instructor, I would try to be as objective as possible. That being said I would listen to my students give their opinions on different works of literature and even try to give opposing view points in order to get them to really understand why they think a certain way or what their reasoning is behind their answer, but try not to use my own opinion to avoid discouraging my students and to avoid conflict. It would truly be an interesting thing to hear people talk about different written works and to see how they interpret them, and I think that as the instructor, I would personally take away a lot from the class as well, especially if I were to teach the class for a long time. Critical thinking is such an important part of trying to understand a written work, and I think that having to do that for yourself each and every day as well as trying to get others to do it would be a truly stressful yet enriching experience. When I was a senior in high school I would consider my Lit teacher to have been the best one that Id ever had because she never chastised the opinions or insights that I had to offer, or that anybody had to offer for that matter, she would remain honest with you if you were off topic but she thought about everybody's answer before answering back, and had everybody in the class give their different insights. In a way she had everybody learn from each other, and I think that's whats so cool about a literature professor, they learn from others, and teach through others as well.

Seeing through the eyes of other people to try to understand where they're coming from on a subject is truly interesting to me and I think that if given the oppurtunity to do so in a class setting in which I would be given the task would be very challenging yet very rewarding at times because of how much listening it requires. Literature is so interesting becaus unlike Math, or Science, or History, there isnt always just one answer, one cant memorize a date or use an equation to figure it out, but instead one has to focus and think for themselves to understand what they read, and if put in the role where you have to determine if their answer is correct or not, you often times have to really listen to what theyre saying, you would have to try to understand their answer if they answered reasonably and understand what theyre saying before you evaluate it. Learning and teaching through the expiriences of others like this, I feel truly lets you understand something you've read, and perhaps does the same for others. Literature is so interesting because it causes you to try understand all kinds of people, even those you might not agree with. One has to use empathy when reading a work, one has to think differently, and watching this way of learning connect with other people would be a really extraordinary thing, and I think as somebody who is having to try to do this each day is a very patient person often times and also has to be an intelligent person to be able to understand how their class thinks.