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A Tribute to a GREAT Teacher
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 A Tribute to a GREAT Teacher |
topic started 6/15/2005; 5:10:23 PM
last post 6/15/2005; 5:10:23 PM |
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 Dan Mitchell - A Tribute to a GREAT Teacher 
6/15/2005; 5:10:23 PM (reads: 5305, responses:
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Initial Contribution by Judy Miner and John Swensson
(and ample lifting of the writings of the prime suspect, Lovas himself)
"Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven. That which we are, we are"
Tennyson, "Ulysses"
It is safe to say that John Lovas is the most influential English teacher De Anza has had, influential in that his leadership has been strong, articulate, both local and national in scope, and will be of lasting value to the teaching of the college. John started at Foothill College in 1965, a young man, recently out of the Army where he had served as an officer, who had just received his Master's in English from the University of Utah. Before his military service he had earned a B.A. in English, with a minor in History and Philosophy, from John Carroll University.
In his list of "Qualifications for Teaching in a Junior College," he said, "In the eighth grade I decided to become a teacher, in the tenth grade an English teacher. Since that time my major concern has been to prepare myself for teaching . . . My undergraduate work. . .has convinced me that the most effective kind of education is one in which teacher and student meet both in and out of the classroom. With these concerns and convictions as a basis, I have attempted to acquire as broad a base of both academic and practical experience as possible to prepare myself for the kind of teaching that is a junior college's major concern: the general education requirements of the first two years." He did all of that in spades, year after year, and thousands of students and hundreds of faculty benefited from his example.
Coming to De Anza in 1977, first as Dean of the Language Arts Division, John quickly established his role as a thoughtful leader in the formulation of pedagogy for the teaching of Language Arts. A 1979 proposal entitled "Basic Skills Coordination" establishes the parameters that ultimately lead to a faculty discussion which resulted in the college's vaunted Readiness Program. Later John co-authored a book with Chancellor Tom Fryer on what Community College shared governance should look like. He also wrote a seminal paper on the subject in 1986 for the Community College CEO's and Trustees of the statewide system.
John took it upon himself to successively and successfully serve as De Anza's ambassador to many, many organizations, both two year and four year devoted to the Teaching of English, whether the Modern Language Association (MLA), National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE), English Council of California Two-Year Colleges (ECCTYC), the 4 C's. and others. So large and keen was his vision and so articulate his arguments that he often put forth his arguments not just on behalf of De Anza but on behalf of community colleges in general, and he did much to advance our causes and our standing.
One of many, many areas in which he worked was the use of "blogs" (web logs) to write to his students and colleagues about the nature of writing. Visit his "Writing Teacher's Blog" where, in his May 31, 2005 entry titled "Beginnings", John writes
"Hunting around for something else, I came upon this 5 x 7 notecard where I had recorded the opening of a student essay from about 25 years ago. Should the student read and recognize this, I'll happily give credit:
Life is in a sense, a life long process. Many things come into it and many things go out of it. Changes occur everyday. If it takes a lifetime to live, how can it be possible that one single event can change a life so drastically for better or worse?"
Most teachers of writing will recognize this kind of problematic opening, full of cliches, circularity, wild generalities, yet raising a fundamentally profound question. In one sense, this represents the heart of teaching college composition. A student has an idea. The student has even formulated that idea as a question, which could easily drive an essay to consider the ironies and paradoxes we face each day. But the student has no sense of the particularities related to the broad question. The student says the obvious, not recognizing that the only effective means of conveying these ideas is through the texture of time, place, person and event. We need to know if the life changing moment came through a parent's death, being left by a lover, suddenly losing or finding faith--or hope, seeing the ocean for the first time, feeling the romance and pull of the full moon, or understanding some text in a way that re-educates perception (a term from John Dewey).
And so the teaching challenge is to get the student to connect the banalites to real experiences, observations, or recollections. When that happens, there's a real chance for a paper worth reading."
Poetry Walks. Don Barnett's 1987 class evaluation talks about one of John's many, annual trips to Fremont Older Open Space in the hills of Saratoga. "John is deceptively masterful in his teaching, possessing the ability of the proficient to make it 'look easy.'" In recent years, John invited his good friend, poet Al Young, to go along and meet with his students. One of the exercises he also had his students do was to read one of Al's poems to Al directly, particularly challenging when Mr. Young is the Poet Laureate of California.
John also had his best students publish their writings in what was entitled THE MAGNUM OPUS. It was a lengthy life-plan, examining the past and the present as a speculative future. Narrative style, first person, it requires a lot of soul searching and articulate expression of one's life's goals and the path toward their achievements. Years later, John's students can still recall the challenge of the assignment and the details of their solutions.
John is always a visionary in using technology to make students better writers. He was an early user of the software Common Space and of MUDs (Multi-User-Domains), online, interactive environment, for students and faculty to meet and talk with each other, and precursors of blogs, as noted above. John took most of his classes to the English Writing Lab; he was a regular lab user because it provided an environment in which his students could become better writers.
He often served as the Honors Program coordinator and teacher, a particular interest of his in view of the depth of his intellect. Generations of Honors Students went to great colleges because of John's brilliance and his work in this area.
In John's 1965 application to Foothill he made reference to working on his college newspaper. After De Anza's journalism program was cancelled in the early nineties because of budget cuts, he almost singlehandedly recreated LA VOZ, starting in 1994. He restored the paper to its previous greatness it had enjoyed in the tradition of Warren Mack, and added early online features and telecasts. As always he sought out the support of his colleagues. "We need writers and we need writing. Ask your students. . ."
Finally, though, despite his restlessness, despite his leadership, despite his publications and representations, John is first and foremost a teacher. We close by letting John have the last word on his own teaching, from one of his own Self-Evaluations:
"For me, teaching is a balancing act: placing expectations on the student and becoming engaged with students requires a seriousness of purpose and a playfulness in approach that is more easily described than carried out. In one sense, the balance must be struck between structure and flexibility; in another sense, the balance lies in finding the right mix of instructor-directed learning and student-directed learning; in writing courses, a critical balance must be established between the emphasis on form and the emphasis on meaning. A writing course that preoccupies students with grammatical and rhetorical forms can quickly become dull, dry, and lifeless; a writing course that simply "goes with the flow," following student interests in free-form discussions, lacks the tension and direction and challenge necessary for real learning. These broad concerns are the basis for my own learning as a teacher. In evaluations, I seek evidence that I am approaching the kind of balance I describe above-and where I fall short, I want to know what I can change to be more effective with students.
Years ago I learned that when I take the initiative in classroom discussions many students are intimidated, reluctant to express their own views. To counter that element in my personality, I do two things: (I) 1 arrange a portion of course time so that students must initiate and direct their own activities (e.g., small group discussions with an assigned task; focused, in-class writings; field trips; computer-based activities); and (2) I use self-disclosure, mostly through personal anecdotes, to acknowledge my awareness of the difficulties faced by students, particularly in writing courses. As much as possible, I try to make clear those occasions when I will lecture or lead (in which case I don't put students on the spot to respond) and those occasions when I expect students to produce. Such clarity of expectations placed on the student provides the kind of structure that most enhances learning, partly because it simultaneously specifies responsibility for a result and it allows flexiblity in method and schedule for producing that result. Writing workshop sessions and small group discussions based on focused writings both incorporate such a balance. Every course I teach uses those methods.
More recently, I have been concerned about achieving a certain coherence in the courses I teach. I try to ground each course in some theory of literature and writing as well in some theory of learning. Then I try to submerge those elements-so that students are focused on meanings and are only marginally aware of the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the course. In short, I want students to feel a sense of coherence throughout the course w ithout hitting them over the head."
WELL DONE, JOHN LOVAS!!! OUR THANKS TO YOU FOR YOUR LESSONS AND CONTINUING EXAMPLE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A GREAT TEACHER.
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