At the same time, I was realizing how much can be accomplished in a different way on the first day. I've begun to focus more on the possibility of what can be learned over the course of the year and less on the nuts and bolts. I realized that like so many teachers, I used to get hung up on making sure that students know the rules and are ready for real classes to begin. But with each year of teaching, I have begun to realize that some of my best days of teaching are when I focus less on the main idea and let the class wander more. Students start thinking about material in new ways. There's less worrying about making sure that all the details get covered and more emphasis on the processes of thinking and learning. Students start to do what Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed describes as "problem posing education," which allows them to shape the learning process more. It's a better way to begin the year than a day "banking education."
A few years ago, another teacher told me about a quote from Dune, which describes the learning process in such a great way. In my world history classes, it's the first thing my students look at today. Students, hopefully, begin to see that learning is a process, and it's one in which they have so much control over. I also just like the idea of starting of with a quote from a science fiction novel.
Many have marked the speed with which Muad' Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Ben Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad' Dib learned rapidly because his first training was how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more find learning to be difficult. Muad' Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.
- Frank Herbert, Dune
