a second consecutive post on Benjamin Zander. below’s a video on Zander’s sharing his teaching philosophy “the art of possibility”. saw it many times in the past, and can’t help but to feel rekindled by Zander each time i watch this video 🙂
extending some thoughts from the video, our education system is built on the downward spirals, and how learning can be transformed if learning is built upon upward spirals. let’s take how (un)well students are learning CL as an example.
the downward spirals talks include:
“学生学不好华文因为他们没有兴趣。”
“学生学不好华文因为他们讨厌华文。”
“学生学不好华文因为他们在家里只讲英语，和朋友只讲英语。”
“学生学不好华文因为他们连字都不认得几个，还整天写错别字。”
“学生学不好华文因为他们…………”
how would the worldview change if we were to frame all these thoughts into one main sentence:
“学生都能学好华文，他们还未发现（这个可能性）罢了。”
similarly, all the above downward talks can be reframed:
“学生都能学好华文，他们还未发现如何对它产生兴趣罢了。”
“学生都能学好华文，他们还未发现如何爱上它罢了。”
“学生都能学好华语，他们还未发现如何能有机会多说罢了。”
“学生都能学好华文，他们还未发现如何能学习好华文的字词罢了。”
这里的共同语是“还未发现如何”，那下一步是什么？不正是教师的工作、教师的职责所在吗？去引导学生发现，去引导学生怎么学，让学生在我们不在的时候（也就是大多数时候）都能学；方法，学习的方法是至关重要的。21世纪的华文教师如果只是单纯的知识输出者，那机器应该可以作更好的输出，而且可以无时无刻地输出、反复地输出，24/7。
我们的学生都是华文成绩A的学生，他们还未发现（这个可能性）罢了。这里需要关注”A”的作用。它不是我们一般让学生去追求的目标。用Zander的话：
“We give students an A not as an expectation to live up to. We give students an A as a possibility to live into.”
这个思维的转变是非常关键的。不然又要落入downward spirals中，不得超生。
the video:
some other quotes that caught my attention are captured here:
“When you give an A, the relationship is transformed.”
“We don’t give children a name as an expectation to live up to. We give children a name as a possibility to live into… We give students an A not as an expectation to live up to. We give students an A as a possibility to live into.”
“it’s “cosmic laughter” … The A is invented, the 68 is invented. We might as well invent something that lights up our lives, and the people around us.”
“In Asia it is important to be right. The teacher is always right… and a young girl said ‘If you don’t say anything, you won’t ever be wrong.”
“You cannot learn anything unless you make a mistake. When you make a mistake, this is how you celebrate…”
“The downward spirals …”
“A Vision, is not something only a few can reach. A Vision, is something that everyone can reach.”
“Everybody loves classical music. They just haven’t found out about it yet.” (vs. Only 3% of pple love classical music. If only 4% of pple love classical music, all our problems would be over.)
“It’s all invented. Standing in possibilities. Rule #6. That’s it. Simple.”
🙂