Thank you for your comment. I agree – education is an exchange. It is a practice of taking part in certain types of exchange. It is also a practice of knowing, for students, that they are worthy of taking part. And, finally, perhaps it is also about finding out that the practices (the kinds of exchange) themselves are worthy enough to be sustained over generations, like keeping a campfire going.

At my current stage, I don’t mind the “original motives” for why a student has found him/herself in my classroom. All that matters is that they are here now! Despite those (cold and impersonal) original motives, I could still initiate an exchange, or offer an invitation. If I am confident that I have offered an invitation, and that they have understood what that invitation is, then it’s okay if it is declined. What I found in Wallis’s book is a deep faith in human nature that says: If the invitation is right, then it will be accepted – thus, it is the teacher’s duty to find the right invitation to the exchange. You mind find this a bit harsh, but it’s an intentionally chosen harshness that guides me to further tinker and try with teaching methods.

Best wishes,
Davood

I stumbled on your youtube channel (Second Cognitive Rev 1) and decided to pop in here too.

This was an interesting post. The way I see it, education is a 2-way street; and ‘success’ requires a trilogy of a knowledgeable educator, an appropriate transmission method, and an interested student. Lose one of these, and the balance could be precarious.

Perhaps you do yourself an injustice in not considering that a majority of Asian students go through tertiary education not out of a love of knowledge, but rather, mechanically, as a means to an end (of a better-paying future, a satisfaction of parental/ peer/ social expectations etc)…?

Thank you for these posts 🙂