TITLE: Narrow Caution and Noble Issue
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 26, 2011 12:08 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
A cautionary note from John Ruskin, in <EM>The Stones
of Venice</EM>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
We are to take care how we check, by severe requirement
or narrow caution, efforts which might otherwise lead
to a noble issue; and, still more, how we withhold our
admiration from great excellencies, because they are
mingled with rough faults.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ruskin was a
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2011-03.html#e2011-03-24T22_23_22.htm">
   permission giver</A>.

I found this passage in
<A HREF="http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-seduction/">
   The Seduction</A>,
an essay by Paula Marantz Cohen.  Earlier in the piece,
she related that many of her students were "delighted"
by Ruskin's idea that "the best things shall be seldomest
seen in their best form".  The students...

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
... felt they were expected to be perfect in whatever
it was they undertook seriously (which might be why they
resisted undertaking much seriously).
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

In the agile software development world, we recognize that
fear even short of perfectionism can paralyze developers,
and we take steps to overcome the danger (small steps,
tests first, pair programming).  We teachers need to
remember that our high school and college students feel
the same way -- and that their feelings are often made
even more formidable by the severe requirement and
narrow caution by which we check their efforts.

Marantz closes her essay by anticipating that other
professors might not like her new approach to
teaching, because it "dumbs things down" with shorter
reading assignments, shorter writing assignments, and
classroom discussion that allows personal feelings.
It seems to me, though, that getting students to
connect with literature, philosophy, and ideas bigger
than themselves is an important win.  One advantage
of shorter writing assignments was that she was able
to give feedback more frequently and thus focused more
directly on specific issues of structure and style.
This is a positive trade-off.

In the end she noted that, despite working from a much
squishier syllabus and with a changing reading list,
students did not complain about grades.  Her conclusion:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
I suspect that students focus on grades when they believe
that this is all they can get out of a course.  When they
feel they have learned something, the grade becomes less
important.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have felt this, both as student and as teacher.  When
most of the students in one of my classes are absorbed
in their grade, it usually means that I am doing something
wrong with the class.

Go forth this week and show admiration for the great
excellencies in your students, your children, and your
colleagues, not only despite the excellencies being
mingled with rough faults, but because they are so.
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