from Augustine's The Teacher

Somehow Augustine's The Teacher made its way onto my reading list. This afternoon I took the time to read it. It's interesting, but what follow are not organized quotations, just notes and quotes that I wanted to preserve somewhere. The early discussion in the book about words and meanings is also interesting, but the discussion on the difficulty of actually 'teaching' mirrors  something I've talked about often with my students: demonstrating that learning happened is much easier than demonstrating that teaching has. I've heard it said that 'teaching' cannot be demonstrated to happen, only learning. Anyways...

from Augustine's The Teacher. trans by Robert Russell. 1968.

- pg 42 - Adeodatus, Augustine's son, touches on just how hard it is to define teaching. At the beginning of the dialogue, they have already pointed out that speaking in pursuit of learning is a method of teaching what one wants to know. 

- pg 44 - " Then it has been established that nothing can be taught without signs, and that we should value knowledge itself more highly than the signs which lead us to it, though it maybe that some of the things signified are not superior to their signs." 

pgs 45-46 - Augustine goes on to show how one can teach through real example the way to do something for an intelligent observer, not just through signs.

- pg 45 - "It is hazardous to mistake what is not known for what is known."

- pg 49 - "Certainly, when I learned to know the reality, I did not rely upon the words of another, but upon my own eyes, though I did possibly rely upon words to direct my attention, that is, to see what there was to see by looking."

- pg 49 "But the man who teaches me is one who presents to my eyes or to any bodily sense, or even to the mind itself, something that I wish to know."

- he then goes on to demonstrate how hard it is to use words to teach words; if we know what something means, we can't learn it. If we don't, we can't say we know what it is until we know the meaning.

- pg 54-55 - When one is asked a question and answers in the negative but then led to answer positively through a series of questions, this is still not teaching. It is simply that he is being led to perceive the problem more completely. They are helping the person to see things more clearly with their 'inner light'.

Then he discusses that questions must be matched to "that Teacher who teaches from within" apparently referring to Christ, who had been mentioned earlier.

When someone hears something I express with words... "In none of these cases, therefore, does he learn. It follows, therefore, that one who does not grasp the reality after hearing our words, or who knows that what he heard is untrue, or who could have given the same answer, if asked, has learned nothing by any words of mine."

pg 59 - "Do teachers ever claim that it is their own thoughts that are grasped and retained, rather than the branches of learning themselves which they purport to transmit by their speaking? What foolish curiosity could ever prompt a man to send his child to school in order to have him learn what the teacher thinks? But when teachers have made use of words to explain all those branches of learning which they profess to be teaching, including even those dealing with virtue and wisdom, then those who are known as pupils reflect within themselves whether what has been said is true, contemplating, that is, that inner truth according to their capacity. It is then, therefore, that they learn. And when they discover within themselves that what has been said is true, they praise their teachers, unaware that they are not so much praising the teachers as they are praising those who have been taught, provided, however, that the teachers also know what they are saying. But, men make the mistake of calling people "teachers" when they are not that at all, because there is generally no interval of time between the moment of speaking and that of knowing, and because their coming to learn from within follows quickly a upon the suggestive force of the speaker's words, they think that they have learned externally from him who spoke those words."

pg 60 - "Words merely stimulate a man to learn."

pg 60-1 - "He alone teaches who made use of external words to remind us that He dwells within us."

fun with alarms and their verbs

 

 Yesterday evening in class, a dear elderly gentleman, one of the most diligent students I've had, had a new question for me. The text in the book was having the students use 'phrasal verbs', those amusing two-word, one-meaning verbs like 'get up' or 'go ahead'. The text was specifically using them in the context of alarms, like smoke alarms. He wanted an explanation for the phrasal verb used when an alarm sounds. 

Why do we use 'goes off' to say that an alarm 'turns on'?

 After asking his question, he carefully stared off into the middle distance so as not to put me on the spot as I publicly and verbally pondered the ridiculousness of this linguistic oddity for the first time. "Your alarm is going OFF; please turn it OFF, or it won't go OFF... er, ahh, I mean it won't stop going OFF."

 After a bit, I readily admitted to the class that this certainly had the potential to throw off (!) a night's sleep, at least until my alarm...

A Recommendation, a Waxwing, and a... well, one more surprise

  The smallest graces and beauties in life often arrive quite unexpectedly. I truly love birds and seeing a variety of them. One result of this is that my current favorite game is Wingspan, a beautifully drawn and well-designed board game which a friend gifted us a few months ago. Somehow competition is combined with beauty and a pinch of education to make a thoroughly enjoyable game experience, although it's too complex for the kids still. But I digress...

  Last week on a walk along a bike trail I saw a flock of Bohemian waxwings. I wouldn't have known their name if I hadn't happened to see this article about it in the Denver Post a few days before, "A rare and beautiful bird is turning up all over Denver this winter." Apparently these waxwings haven't been to Denver since I was a toddler. They were far more beautiful than the rather distant picture below suggests. The two colorings, presumably male and female, were both lovely; and the dozens of waxwings were in no rush to go anywhere else. But this morning...!

Bohemian waxwing

 Driving down Holly Street to drop kids off for school, I saw a bald eagle! I have loved eagles since I was very young, and they always make me think of my granddad because he had a house full of bald eagles (pictures, sculptures, and whatnot). Again, the picture quality below is lacking, but the gift of seeing beautiful birds wherever I'm at was not lacking in any way. Thankfully, we had a couple minutes to get out and take pictures of the bird before I dropped the kids off. Then I went back to look at it again in quietness.

A bald eagle, in Park Hill, Denver

 I said 'quietness', but actually you may notice in the video below that the crows and magpies were thoroughly disturbed that the eagle had entered their normal space. That's what the racket is, but the eagle seems unconcerned with it. And well he should!

 Actually this is the second time in the last several months that we've seen eagles. In November, driving back from Thanksgiving, we saw some bald eagles in Kansas, but they were away across a field. So even though we trespassed into a corn field, we still couldn't get particularly close.

 

Philippians and the Presence

 

The Albanian Alps

 

  That the Maker of this unimaginably great universe would approach -draw near to- creatures he made is one of the great mysteries and realities in the Bible. What kind of God cares about minute creatures on a tiny planet in the midst of this stunning magnificence, especially ones who have rejected his lordship? Yet, throughout Scripture, we do not only find the Maker coming as a Judge of rebels, though that is certainly part, and we do not only find a Presence through pure symbol like fire or cloud or dove, but we also see the approach of intimate call to relationship and friendship with the One. Of course, this was manifested ultimately when God became human enfleshed. [This is not the often-accused impossibility that a human should somehow became GOD, but the belief that GOD stooped low to become one of us.]

  As I've been reading in Paul's letter to the Philippians, I was struck by the practical relevance of the Lord's presence for the Jesus-follower. In 4:5-6 (below), the soon-coming or approach of the Lord is the basis for not worrying. In other words, don't worry about the future because the Lord will be there. Several verses later, Paul says, the way to practice right thought and action is with the knowledge of the God of peace's current presence with you. In other words, you can live in God's way now because the God who will gives peace is actually with you. 

  Since these verses about the presence of God in the future and the present came so close together, I wonder if this letter mentioned the presence of God in the past with these sorts of practical implications. And it does. In chapter 2:4-8, Paul writes that Jesus-followers are to have a sacrificial and unified attitude towards each other and others. Then he gives the basis of this as such an attitude is already 'yours in Christ Jesus' because of Jesus' past presence in coming and dying, along with his exaltation. From other Scriptures, we can see that being 'in Christ Jesus' relates directly to our being in the Presence. So, we have here the past presence of God enabling a God-ward present inner life and attitude. 

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4:5-9, ESV)

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2:4-8, ESV)