On The Teacher

            St. Augustine considers truth and where it comes from in On The Teacher.  He has a conversation with his son, Adeodatus, and during this conversation, the two men try to make sense of what language is for, how it helps teachers pass information to their students, and how understanding actually comes about.  Augustine comes to the conclusion that comprehension does not happen simply because a teacher “gives” knowledge to a student by explaining something to them, it happens when the information is “shown” to the student in a way that is conducive to their comprehension.  This kind of teaching, however, is best performed by Christ, “the teacher within”.   Philip Quinn writes,

“Christ teaches by showing or presenting directly to the learners’ mind, not signs for things, but the intelligible things signified by such signs….In short, like human teaching, divine teaching is showing rather than telling.  The difference is that the divine teacher can show the learners mind intelligible things and human teachers cannot.”

I understand Augustine’s ideas about the “teacher within” in much the same way I understand the theory of the “forms”: as humans we can only understand so much about the world and our lives, that there is some ultimate truth that we will never know.  According to that theory, as humans we will not reach perfection, we can only strive for it, and what we see and experience in our lives are earthly versions of the true forms.  But where do these ideas, and Augustine’s, leave teachers?

I think Augustine’s philosophy is helpful in that it takes some of the “pressure” off of teachers by making it clear that they are not the only people responsible for students’ understanding. No matter how well a teacher teaches, in theory, there is some revelation to the mind that happens only when a third party makes comprehension possible.  But, if we take that theory too far in the other direction, it could lead us to a place where we think that teachers aren’t valuable at all.  This kind of thinking is evident in scripted curricula and teaching practices that are designed so that “anyone can teach”.  They devalue the position of the teacher, and in so doing, limit the possibility of what a great teacher can do when allowed to use their creativity and the wisdom they’ve gained as practicing teachers.