How do you use emotion in your teaching? Teaching is an art, and our art is in connecting with students, but I hear my colleagues shy away from situations where students might be emotional such as discussing hot-button issues, or in assigning work that asks the student to talk or write about themselves in a personal way. “We aren’t counselors” I’ve heard other instructors say, but really what they’re saying is that they’re uncomfortable addressing the emotional development of their students. They usually focus on teaching only through logic and information as if they’re programming computers instead of inspiring future leaders and scholars. Even if the teacher does fun assignments, they don’t challenge their students to grow emotionally as well as intellectually.
In an except in Slate from Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, William Deresiewicz says,
Teaching is not an engineering problem. It isn’t a question of transferring a certain quantity of information from one brain to another. “Educate” means “lead forth.” A teacher’s job is to lead forth the powers that lie asleep within her students.
In my English 102 research writing course, I have students choose topics by first making a list of “things” that they’re curious about. We narrow these topics down based on what truly interests them. I ask them to talk and write about why they care about each thing. and though a student my easily write a few paragraphs on something they listed, they often students shy from selecting emotional subjects for our course-long research projects because they have been taught to avoid writing emotionally, and they don’t feel comfortable dealing with emotional topics in class with other students. That is, until I tell them my own story of how I made my decisions to be an English teacher– how I love writing and that I have seen first-hand how literacy is power and that those without or with poor literacy are some of the most disenfranchised in the world, and that I believe those with the power of literacy need to speak up for those without.
I have encouraged students to research alternative therapies for autistic children because their own brother was diagnosed, I encouraged a student to research alcoholism because their parent died of it, and I encouraged another student to get into the history and future of engine design because they had always had a passion for the subject. Oftentimes the stronger the emotional connection to their subject, the better their research comes out because they have a personal, emotional investment in the subject. They make connections between the research and themselves and the world around them, and when they talk about their subject, their eyes catch fire and their voices raise.
“But is this appropriate for research,” students and other teachers may ask of their emotionally charged topics. People who are the best in their field tend to have strong emotional ties to their subjects, whether it in sports, education, theater, or science. Learning how to use emotion to feed curiosity and motivation is how people become successful, and if we don’t teach them how to use their emotions in their academic pursuits, where will their learn it from?
The New College Professor 