Hantz, Dr. Charles

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss my thoughts and motivations regarding teaching.

According to Webster's dictionary, to educate is "to provide schooling to an accepted standard."  Thus, the first responsibility of an educator is to provide the requisite information pertinent to the course, and to do so in such a fashion that students may follow, study, understand, and hopefully retain that information.  In this sense, the most basic purpose of education, and so our most basic responsibility, is to be conveyors of information.  To achieve this goal requires a multifaceted approach, since learning, that is, the gaining of knowledge, is not accomplished by all students in all the same ways.  I therefore use as many different teaching styles as is practicable, to include lectures, case studies, study groups, individual projects, video, guest speakers, and discussion.

The word proceeding educate in my dictionary is educe.  Related to education, educe means "to draw out; to infer." Though not included in the definition of educate, to create and cultivate the skills necessary to infer conclusions is also a primary purpose of education.  Here we move away from the basic memorization of facts and to the application of those facts to situations in order to draw out larger truths. We can now place events, theories, personalities, processes, or whatever the subject of observation into a broader context.  These conclusions go beyond the basic facts and suggests something more about the nature of the universe.  Furthermore, the deductive process creates critical thinkers.

Repeating this exercise allows us at some point to place ourselves into this larger context and establish our Westanschauung.  A student can then make choices about who they want to be, what icons represent their place in the world, and what value system changes must occur to accommodate any revision in their world view. The egotistical hope of educators is that this process will in the end create an individual who is thoughtful, reflective, critical, and engaged in the world about them.

An exciting and important charge has been entrusted to educators.  I have succeeded to some minor extent in meeting this responsibly, but I also know that no one in this field could possibly be satisfied with their own efforts.  Continued labors at improvement in our own craft should always be our standard.  Our hope and motivation lies with the effect this work will have upon the students who come into our classroom.