Teacher's Page
[Like the teacher, continually under construction]
Name: John Stephen Dinan
Department: English Language & Literature
School: Central Michigan University
Degrees: Ph.D. (University of Massachusetts, 1976)
M.A. (University of Minnesota, 1968)
B.A. (University of Minnesota, 1965)
Academic Specializations: Composition/Rhetoric
English Education
Non-Professional Interests: Gardening
Computers
Golf
Popular Science
Non-Reflective ["guilty pleasures"] Reading
Hometown: Duluth, Minnesota
Special Talent: Using duct tape to resurrect course folders
Current Project: But Don't They Know This Already?: Memoir of A Non-Writer (as told to Robert L. Root, Jr.)
Teaching Principles and Stuff:
Teaching
Principle #1: Respect.
That is, we need to give students our
non-negotiated respect at the outset of a course instead of opting for a
"you'll have to earn my respect" orientation toward them which is
inherently both adversarial and arrogant. The latter attitude poisons the
classroom environment from the start, at least to some degree.
To be sure, this "automatic and unspoken" respect
is NOT at all the
same as the "unconditional positive regard" given by good parents and best
friends, for unlike in those intimate relationships, a classroom teacher's
respect can be lost by students (ditto for the students' respect for the
teacher) for reasons we all know too well.
This respect is conditional. The most challenging emotional work of English teaching has to do
with cultivating and preserving our bottom-line respect for our students
so that we can continue having a healthy relationship with them.
This can be challenging; often the actions of teachers belie their claims
about having respect for their students, and students are especially sensitive
to our hypocrisies. But how wonderfully most of them respond to being
honestly given such respect.
Teaching
Principle #2: Success.
That is, we need to set
students up for success rather than failure.
As simple as that may sound, we sometimes ignore this principle in a
number of ways, ranging from (1) taking a "you'll have to earn my
respect" posture (see Principle #1 above) and (2) setting ourselves up as
Guardians of the Tower Where Worthy Standards and Rigor Rule By God to (3)
asking students to do things independently that they are unable to do
successfully at this
point in their development--at least not without a goodly amount of information and assistance
from us. I think the greatest mental
work of the undergraduate Composition teacher (as well as the greatest time commitment,
seeing as how editing student writing is major part of this) is in finding ways
to enable our students to be successful in what we ask them to do. Only teachers who respect their students do this with faith
and persistence.
Something to Think About: Often with notable self-righteousness we talk about the importance of accepting and even encouraging "diversity" in our university world. Why is, then, that we just as often find it so difficult to extend the olive branch of diversity to our own students--certainly a culturally "different" group, at least until "save" them--rather than being so impatient with them for being so different from us?
Miscellaneous Revelations
Humor: A horse walks into a local drinking establishment and sits down at the end of the bar. The bartender walks down the bar to the horse and asks, "Hey buddy, why the long face?"
Humor: There's a food stand on the side of the street with a big "Hotcakes" sign over the counter. A man walks up to the cook behind the counter and asks, "How they selling?"
Humor: What did the fish say when he ran into a concrete wall? A: "Damn!"
Our Administration Building -- Let Us Be Hopeful Yet Vigilant
