On Teaching: "Oysters or Flowers?"

In Dickens’ Dombey and Son, the author compares two kinds of teaching – that which attempts to pry open students’ minds as if they were oysters, and that which allows students’ minds to open in a natural, gradual way, like flowers. Teachers may be tempted to say, “Well, of course I prefer the second kind. Of course students should not be pried open like oysters!” – but I wonder if the oyster approach might play a larger role in teaching than we realize. I wonder if we don’t often, without even realizing it, think of students as objects that need to be forcefully opened so that we can put information into them. I wonder if we don’t do a lot more prying than allowing in our classrooms. Actually, the idea of allowing is one that seems foreign to many teachers and schools, because it appears to imply a lack of control. Many teachers feel that all of their training was directed at learning to manage, lead, guide, manipulate, and influence students – not to allow them to grow and blossom on their own. Teachers may ask, “Why are we even necessary, if the students can just blossom on their own?” I have an answer for that: Teachers are as necessary for their students as gardeners are for their flowers. Like the gardener, the teacher nourishes, protects, and generally provides a wholesome environment. Like the gardener, the teacher has the complicated task of arranging conditions that will be conducive to the process of growth. The teacher’s job is a demanding and essential one, not because she’s prying oysters open, but because she’s allowing -- making it possible for-- her students to naturally blossom into their beautiful adult selves.