Anti-Climacus

ON THE JOYS OF TEACHING: I don't have many distinct memories from the period I was studying for my prelims, but one in particular sticks out, an evening spent reading the Republic. More than anything, I remember the sense of futility I had in reading it. I was re-reading because I needed to get the relevant parts (this was Bk. VIII in particular) in my head, but there was nothing new in it for me: it was the dozenth or so time I'd read through. Successive readings often add a lot to one's comprehension--the difference between a first and a second reading is vast, and that's still true even at a fourth or fifth--but one does eventually suffer diminishing marginal returns. I wouldn't, I concluded, be able to get anything new out of it until I taught it.

To my surprise as delight, that's turned out to be the case: on Monday, I taught Aristotle's Politics, one of the books in the political theory canon that had always eluded me (the only time I ever had half-success with it was when I read it backwards). In teaching it, or in the process of preparing, I finally put it together. The same has happened with today's reading on Rawls: I will head off shortly to teach it, and goodness knows there's a reasonable chance the class will go badly (especially when starting out, I think one is always walking on that edge), but all the parts of the theory seem clear to me and I can explain why each of them go in the order that they do. In this way, I think I can better defend Rawls' theory than I could before (not that I have interest in defending it apart from pedagogical purposes); and it's also the case that I have a better grasp on why the objections that are often raised go right to the heart of the theory (I have more of an appreciation for Michael Sandel and the communitarian cause).

There's a lot about teaching that can be stressful--I'm handing back papers today--but it's nice to be reminded of the things that are quite good about it, too.