Re. Blame the student or blame the teacher?

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     I'm interested to note that we seem to have divided into two camps
     over poor writing/reading skills: many blame the teacher, and many
     blame the student. I must wonder, though, whether anything is ever
     this simple.

     There's no doubt a bad teacher can fail to teach. There's also no
     doubt that a bad learner can fail to learn. (Note that "bad" here can
     have a multitude of explanations and meanings... choose whichever ones
     suit you.) The reality is that even good teachers won't reach
     uninterested or learning-disabled students, and that even the worst
     teachers won't ruin interested, skilled learners. Generalisations
     usually mask the truth... that reality lies somewhere in between the
     extremes, and usually combines elements of truth from both.

     I've taught students who simply didn't respond to me at all, no matter
     what approach I tried. This may have been my fault (limited rhetorical
     flexibility), their fault (disinterest) or a combination of both. I've
     also taught students whose learning style I could adapt to, and in
     several cases doubled their percentage grades by the end of the
     course. (Yes, I'm proud of that. Very. But less proud that I couldn't
     help some others.) Don't cast blame without recognizing that both the
     teacher and the learner share responsibility for learning.

     --Geoff Hart     #8^{)}
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: These comments are my own and don't represent the opinions
     of the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada.