What is Teaching?

This was excerpted from a speech by Professor Jacob Neusner, professor of Judaic studies at Brown University. His speech, given to students at Elizabethtown University, on the social contract between teacher and student, has some great insights into what teachers and students are about.

"Our theory of teaching is to tell students, 'Don't ask, discover!' The more we tell you, the less you learn. The more you learn, the more we teach. And learning takes place, in a country as practical and as rich in innovation as this country, when you find out for yourself. Professors are there to guide, to help, to goad, to irritate, to stimulate. Students are there to explore, to inquire, to ask questions, to experiment, to negotiate knowledge. The ideal teachers for our students therefore are people like Socrates, Jesus and Hillel, and what you have to ask of your professors is that they measure themselves by the model of Socrates, Jesus, and Hillel."
"Great teachers don't teach. They help students learn. Students teach themselves. Three of the all-time greats - Socrates, Jesus, and his Jewish contemporary the sage Hillel - share a dislike of heavyweight speeches. They spoke briefly, painting pictures and telling tales ('parables'), and always raised more questions than they settled."
"Socrates was the greatest philosopher of all time, and all he did was walk around the streets and ask people irritating questions. Jesus was certainly the most influential teacher in history, and his longest 'lecture' - for instance, the Sermon on the Mount - cannot have filled up an hour of classroom time or a page in a notebook. And Hillel's greatest lesson, in answer to someone who told him to teach the entire Torah while standing on one foot - 'What is hateful to yourself, don't do to someone else. That's the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary. Now go study' - directed people to go off and learn on their own."
"The great teacher makes a few simple points. The powerful teacher leaves one or two fundamental truths. And the memorable teacher makes the point not by telling but by helping the students discover on their own. Learning takes place through discovery, not when you're told something but when you figure it out for yourself. All a really fine teacher does is make suggestions, point out problems, above all, ask questions, and more questions, and more questions...."
"What should you ask of your professors? (1) Don't tell me things; let me find our for myself. (2) But when I need help, give it to me. (3) And when my work is poor, don't tell me it's good. Many professors would rather be liked than be understood; not a few find it easier to indulge the students than teach them. Don't accept from professors compliments when they owe you criticism. And love them when they're tough. Proverbs says, 'Rebuke a wise person, and you'll be loved, rebuke a fool and you'll be hated.' Show yourselves wise, and you'll get professors who care about what you know."
"What should your professors ask of you? (1) Don's ask me to sell you my subject; let me explain it to you. Once you're in the classroom, relevance is a settled question: this is what you want to know; now let me teach it. (2) Don't stop work in the middle of the semester. It's easy to start with enthusiasm, and it's easy to end with commitment. But in the middle of a course, it's hard to sustain your work; the beginning is out of sight, the end and goal and purpose of the course not yet on the horizon. Do your best when the weather looks bleak. (3) Don't sit back and wait to be told things; stay with me and allow the logic of the course to guide us both; join me, think with me...."