Jenell Paris has been teaching anthropology to undergraduate students for nearly 20 years. She loves anthropology, and she also loves teaching. Yet, like many teachers across the spectrum of education, she is also weighed down by the challenges of teaching in a setting marred by institutional instability, budget shortfalls, hyper-attentiveness to assessment, distrust between administrators and teachers, market pressures, threats of violence, and other problems. In this climate, it is easy for teachers to become disillusioned, and to disconnect from the passions that drew them to the profession.
With what is likely to be another 20 years of teaching ahead of her, Jenell used the mid-point of her career as a teacher to reflect on why she does what she does. Last fall, Jenell was a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute during a sabbatical from teaching. She began writing a book of creative nonfiction to encourage teachers of all sorts and help them renew their love for teaching. Her project, which is tentatively titled, Spirited Teaching, explores the connections between spirituality and the practice of teaching. Weaving together anecdotes both humorous and poignant—most of them from her own teaching—Jenell develops a pedagogy based on the virtue of love. In fearful times such as these, only love is powerful enough to sustain teachers in their art. In this video interview, Jenell introduces us to her thoughts on spirituality and teaching.
The eight-minute video is divided into several sections, outlined below:
The Inner Life of a Teacher (00:14)
“The inner life of a teacher comes across to the students. Spiritual care of our own lives matters not just for ourselves, but in everyday ways for our students.”
Remembering Our Ideals (1:08)
“Teaching is a vocation that calls to idealists. …Reality threatens to crush those ideals.”
Paying Attention (2:32)
“Paying attention is a lesson that applies to us as teachers as much as it does to students.”
Teaching as a Vocation (4:32)
“Good teachers know that we are teaching more than spelling, or writing, or anthropology. …We are teaching people, and we are forming them in how they live in the world and how they look at the world.”
Image: Teachers Pet (cropped original) by Matthew, on flickr via a creative commons license.
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