VVINSIDER : VOLUME 4 : NUMBER 22 : AUGUST 1, 1986

REGISTRATION HOURS FOR SEPTEMBER
Fall registration hours are scheduled as follows:

8:00 am to 6:00 pm

September 2 to September 4

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

8:00 am to 5:00 pm

September 5, 12, 19, and 26

Fridays
September 8 to September 25

8:00 am to 7:00 pm
Monday to Thursday

September 13 and September 20

9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Saturdays

LG

FROM COMPUTER SERVICES
Would any person(s) using the Word

Processing (MUSE/WORDMARC) program on
our Prime Computers, please contact
Jim Chivas at the Langara computing
centre at 324-5390!

JC

FASHION ARTS PROGRAM
Congratulations to Marva Newnes, a student in the VCC/CE Fashion Arts Program,
who won both the second and fourth prize in the recent Fashion Design Contest
sponsored by IKEA and Woman to Woman Magazine.
Marva has just completed the second level courses in Fashion Design, Pattern
Making, and Garment Construction. Her two winning designs were selected from
475 entries in this province-wide contest.

DO

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
You can not do a kindness too soon,
for you never know how soon it will be too late!

l^SNCOU^ER VCC " VANC0UVEli VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE

COMMUNITY Li£)MRY

COLLSGF^ «Ub u / iBo
Vancouver

Vocational Institute

]

PASSION AND PEDAGOGY
We were discussing Socrates' conversation with Glaucon about qualities of a good thinker Socrates used the
word "passion" frequently—"passion for truth," "passion for the whole of reality," "one whose passions flow
toward knowledge." It struck some of my students as odd that such a term as "passion" should be used in
connection with academic learning. I know it struck them, because as I got more and more excited in talking
about Socrates' views—my arms flailing in the air, my voice rising to a sports-fan screech level to make the point
that one could not really learn without passion—there were a few quizzical smiles; and for this class of 40
freshmen studying Plato's Republic, that amounted to a riot of reaction.
We went on to notice that m the very next passage, Socrates discussed the importance of a good memory. He
said good thinkers have good memories. Knowing Socrates well enough by now, several students were at least
able to suggest that passion and a good memory must somehow be connected in Socrates' thinking, I agreed.
To pursue it further, I asked why some of them could remember amazing arrays of complicated sports statistics
going back several years and could not remember that it was Polemarchus rather than Glaucon who believed
that justice is a matter of helping your friends and harming your enemies. It did not take us long to agree that
it is much easier to remember something one gets worked up about, even easier to understand it, than to
remember something unexciting like who said what about morality and justice I suggested that it might have
something to do with heartbeat, muscle tension, and rate of breathing. Those quizzical smiles quickly vanished.
The bell rang, several students woke up, others stretched and yawned, a few maintained a puzzled look; I
gathered my materials, took a deep breath, and accompanied my thumping heart out of there.
What does it take7 It has not been until recently that I have been willing to admit that my commanding voice
and marvelous explanations are just not suffiaent to rouse students to a fever pitch of passion for the truth.
Now I am convinced that it is their passion (not just mine) that is the key. I am convinced that Socrates is
right—passion is often the missing ingredient in their learning and remembering
If teaching is an art (and let us agree that it is in some respects), I believe we need the imagination of the
artist as well as the knowledge of the subjects we teach to be able to meet the challenges of a student body
largely without passion for learning and to be able to come up with some new approaches to teaching. For we
must be able, not only to understand what interests and excites students, but to teach in a manner that does in
fact interest and excite them. You may feel that it is not your job to do this You spent the time and exerted the
will to learn, your students should do the same And if they don't think it's worth the effort, they should pay
the penalty.
I would agree except for the fact that it is sometimes easy to forget how some of us came by our own sense of
urgency about the things we studied. For some of us there were teachers "back there" whose passion for
learning was demonstrable and contagious. They went beyond the academic "slow-game"; they inflamed the
mind, so that for those few cruaal moments it danced with excitement And for us there was no going back. I
say that some of us experienced that I include myself. Others, I am sure, had no need of it. They were
"blessed" early—was it a gift of nature, a gift of parents7 For some reason they had a passion for knowledge,
and they remembered well. These teachers, no doubt, will find it hard to sympathize with my passive, dull
students. So maybe it takes one to know one

I am not willing to write-off the drowsy, yawning, bleary-eyed freshmen in my general education classes
They sit before me like stumps on logs They don't respond to questions. They refuse to read. They cannot
write. I know that many of them will be gone in another semester or two, victims, we say, of a poor public
education But I do not believe that remediation is the entire answer. I can also cnticize them and scold them,
but that doesn't work The threat and pressure of daily quizzes is another approach I doubt that the effect is
lasting. They will not remember well
What I want before they go is a shot at their cardiovascular systems and their lungs I want them for once to
get passionate about an idea and to see what it does to their minds I am persuaded by my own early
experiences and by some recent observations that understanding and recall in students can be dramatically

Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

improved when the heart beats rapidly and the lungs take in gobs of air I know you can't teach passion The
contagion of passion is almost always an interpersonal event, a moment when the person-with-others
experiences a dramatic change of attitude because of a strange new emotional intensity about an issue, an idea, a

fact
Our department now stages debates each semester They are deliberate attempts at "art" in the service of
pedagogy We sat down last year and fought frustration with imagination "How can we turn our students on
to philosophical ideas7 Let's do something that combines philosophical thinking with drama, or if not drama at
a high level, at least a raucous atmosphere " We decided to choose three positions on a topic—say "Is There
Life After Death?"—put on our academic robes, march into the Clark Room, and (following a structured debate
format, stating our initial positions from prepared manuscripts, followed by rebuttals) proceed to yell at each
other, insult each other, get the crowd to laugh at our opponents, boo and hiss them, and cheer when one of us
makes a good point.
At the first debate, the audience (our PHI 110 students are required to attend) got a chance at the end to ask
questions or make comments. The atmosphere was still charged. I was consigned to hell twice and once
roundly booed when I said one of my opponents didn't mind getting thrown out of the Garden of Eden,
because it was obvious he had eaten a lot more than just fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What have the rowdiness, the flying ad hominems and the humorous remarks got to do with thinking
clearly? I'm sure some of you react negatively. "Knowledge is supposed to be its own excitement Gentleness
of tone reflects a genteel spirit." It seems to me that some case can be made for the association of good manners
and clear thinking, but it is not a case I should like to make for my general education students. They have too
long associated cleverness with quietness, deep-thinking with dull tones. I should like them to experience those
exciting moments when a flesh and bone human being "slam dunks" an idea nght over the outstretched
objections of an opponent—and, if necessary, rakes him across the face going down. I want the heart to race
and a yell to go up for that.
Our debates are intended to stimulate passion, or at least to associate it with vital thinking. We prepare the
students for the debate by telling them it is expected that they will demonstrate their feelings about what is
being said. For that to happen, the debaters themselves must be willing to "sacrifice" their proud egos to
taunts, to ridicule, to (somewhat) undeserved hostility. But it works. It works, at least, for that event. We
don't want it to stop there, however, for the purpose of the debate is to give us talking-points for our'classes
and, perhaps even more important, to take the atmosphere of the debate back into the classroom.
I cannot speak for the others, but what I have found is that students do get involved—they discuss the issue
with considerable clarity, and they remember well. The carry-over effect of the debate is there for the using in
the classroom. But, alas, after a few days of referring to it, I leave the topic and settle back into the
assignments. This is disturbing because my fondest hope for the debates is that they will provide a basis for
changing both my approach to teaching and the student's approach to listening and speaking.
So it's back to booming voice and marvelous explanations. And the students go back to confusing emotion
with ideas. Yes, for the irony is that when one cannot get excited about ideas, one runs a very great risk of not
being able to separate emotion from thought. In the confusion, one says, "Well, I'm not excited about this. It
must not be important."

On the other hand, if there is passion for the ideas, one can more clearly see when extraneous matters
intrude on the ideas. It is clear to me from our debate experiences that when one of us attacks another's person
(ad hominem) and not his ideas, the audience reacts correctly They laugh and boo, but they separate the man
wounded from his position. Passion does that. It clarifies the ideas to the point of their having to be separated
from feeling.
So the irony of the debate, one that I am trying to sustain in the classroom, is that the more raucous the
atmosphere and the more intense people become, the less chance there is of confusing lack of feeling with lack
of meaning or of confusing pleasing looks with pleasing reasoning.
To separate passion from thought, one must be passionate.

Bob Miller
Eastern Kentucky University
Edited and reprinted with permission. For further information, contact the author at EKU TEACHING, Box 7A,
Coates Bldg., Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY 40475-0931.
Suanne D Roueche, Editor

October i I 1985, Vol VII, No 24

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, ED8 348, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas 78712, |5I2) 471-754S Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for S35 per year Funding in part by the W K Kellogg
Foundation and Sid W Richardson Foundation Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and monthly during the summer
f The University of Texas at Austin, 1985
Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel , ISSN 0I99-I06X

JOB OPPORTUNITIES
. . . oops . . . The closing date for the position of DIVISION CHAIRMAN,
Industrial/Technical Division at VVI was erroneously printed as July 25, 1986
in a recent edition of the VVInsider. Actually there was another month before
the position closed for applications thus please note that this position will
remain open for application until August 25. 1986!

Capilano College requires a DEAN OF INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES. The commencement
date is January 1987 and applications will be accepted until 4:00 pm on
September 5, 1986. Apply to the Personnel Department, Capilano College, 2055
Puree!! Way, North Vancouver, B.C., V7J 3H5. Please be sure to quote
Competition number 86-124-A.

VCC/Continuing Education requires a WORK EXPERIENCE COUNSELLOR in the Career
Awareness Program located at VVI. The start date is immediately and this is a
term appointment.

VCC/Continuing Education requires PART-TIME COMMERCIAL ART INSTRUCTORS. The
closing date is August 8, 1986.

NEW AUDIO/VISUAL IN THE LIBRARY
Stalking the Silent Thief - Osteoporosis
CAD/CAM Technology - 6 FS/6 Cassettes

UPCOMING COLLEGE BOARD MEETINGS , „ ,
^ Y '''

College Board Meetings in the Central Administration offices have been
scheduled for August as follows: ' ,, ,

Education and Student Services Committee, Wednesday, August 13 at 4:30 pm
Administration Committee, Tuesday, August 19 at 4:00 pm
College Board, Wednesday, August 27 at 7:00 pm

Al! the meetings are public, and employees and students are encouraged to
attend.

HWR