Wilhelm Chapter 1 & 2

            The Wilhelm chapters can be summed in a short, simple, and to-the-point sentence “This is how to teach.”  But the actual work to getting to the point of “This is how to teach” is far from short, simple, or to-the-point.  Countless times, Wilhelm makes reference that teaching is a step-by-step learning that educators must first immerse themselves in.

            Teaching is a profession that can be both definite and indefinite.  This is an idea that I found as I read the beginning pages of Wilhelm’s guide.  What I think this means to mean is that as a profession the educator is responsible for a certain number of activities that the average citizen does not, or rather is unable, to conceive for a purpose which is specifically pedagogic in nature.  That, in itself, is the definite portion of the profession of teaching.  In the meat and bone of teaching, or rather what it means to teach, Wilhelm’s guide almost trails off and loses itself with the countless routes and options in how educators have chosen to teach their students.  The educator’s profession choice in how they teach their students is also thrown in as an aspect of what it means to teach, as the reason that educators teach also varies from individual to individual, and from school district to school district.

A profession defines itself and its boundaries, controls entry into its ranks, sets and enforces its own standards, and maintains and creates its own method and knowledge.  It is problematic that in the United States much of what teachers should control is controlled by outsiders who are not educators—administrators, school boards, legislators—people who do not know what we know, who do not know our kids, and who may not share our concerns. (Wilhelm 4)  

In the first chapter of Wilhelm’s guide, he encounters and integrates an educator who has created a 17 year education plan for his students.  Like most educators who have followed in the footsteps of Socrates, Wilhelm playfully, but critically, asserts the question of “Why?” Rather, why was the educator choosing to teach in this specific matter, or why was the educator choosing to teach this specific material.  It seemed too unreal and rather worrisome to me that that educator chose to answer “It fits the curriculum” (Wilhelm 2).

            Most every technique and style in which an educator chooses to present their knowledge and information to students involves a skill called teaching.  What is interesting about this skill is that it does not have a slice-and-dice method to its application (and nor should it).  Echoing my professor from my SED 406 course, educators are employed with two very specific teaching techniques called Direct and Indirect teaching.  Direct teaching involves the educator engaging the class with a main idea, the question that should be taught to a class, a group practice on the brought about idea and question, and then an individual assessment on the learnt idea and skill.  Indirect teaching involves the educator beginning a lesson with their class with a question that needs to be answered, pushes the class to explore material through an activity which indirectly impacts the skill they are practicing, has the students share their discovers, and then ends the class with the main idea/skill that the educator was meaning to get across.  Wilhelm alludes to these techniques in his first chapter, entitled “Steps In Explicit Teaching” (12). But what he really builds upon in this section is the necessity of the educator to bring the teaching to being student centered, which is not necessarily always curriculum oriented.  The teaching of material from an educator to their students doesn’t, then, begin with the knowledge of the content nor the concerns of the outside community at large, but rather begins with what the students themselves bring to the classroom (along with their own learning habits that the educator is responsible for accommodating).