All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

73
“Music never stops; it is we who turn away” –
John Cage
Tina Wagle, School for Graduate Studies
A Review of:
Dear Maxine: Letters from the Unfinished
Conversation with Maxine Greene
Edited by Robert Lake
Irecently read Dear Maxine: Letters
from the Unfinished Conversation with
Maxine Greene (2010) and wanted to
offer some reflections inspired by the work
for All About Mentoring. For those not
familiar with her work, Maxine Greene is
said to be the most profound educational
philosopher since John Dewey. A prolific
author and educator, Greene holds a deep
respect for the arts and humanity and is able
to see potential in everything and everyone.
The book is a collection of letters written
to Greene by friends and scholars, many of
whom also are considered to be leaders in
education today, including Shirley Steinberg,
Mike Rose, Elliot Eisner, Gloria Ladson-
Billings and William Ayers, just to name a
few. The letters are poignant and moving.
They speak not only to the body of work
Greene contributed over the years, but also
to the profound impact her work has had
on educators globally and perhaps more
importantly on the art of thinking critically
and innovatively.
The words of 20th century American
composer John Cage – doubling as the title
for this piece – come from his Composition
in Retrospect (1983) and were cited by Julie
Searle in her letter to Maxine. The reason I
chose this title is because as I was reading
the book, I was struck by the importance
of reflection. Greene believes that one’s
imagination is the key to conceptualizing
a better future. It is the imagination that
allows us to think critically and reflect in a
way that is open and visionary. Reflection
is an act we often encourage our Master
of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) students to
engage in throughout their course work, and
crucially it exists as a requirement for the
final portfolios they create at the end of the
program. We ask them to reflect on the past
three years as they transition from student
to teacher. We believe that such moments of
reflection are important in demonstrating
growth and lifelong learning. And yet, as
I read and thought about Greene and the
authors of these letters to her, I wondered,
“When was the last time I allowed myself to
reflect on imaginative pedagogy or sit with
my own critical thoughts”
The field of teacher-education is changing.
More and more standards are being imposed
on students, competitors from businesses
outside of the educational arena are entering
the fray, and the demands upon teachers
are greater than ever. In order to house
a quality teacher-education program, we
cannot be oblivious to this bigger picture;
we must keep up with these changes; we
have to be diligent in what we offer our
students in order for them to be successful
in their own classrooms. We have necessarily
been preoccupied with these demands,
which have required tremendous time
and attention. It would be irresponsible
of us to imagine they do not exist. But
what does all of this attention do to our
lives as reflective practitioners
I think many of us at Empire State College
often say how busy we are – myself
included. But as I allowed myself time to
read this tribute to Maxine Greene, I was
drawn back to my own roots in the social
foundations of education and to the core of
that work, which is about thinking – about
reflecting – and, importantly too, about
being hopeful about education. So, as I read
the Cage quote, I asked myself whether any
time that was lost not thinking this way was
my own fault. “The music never stops; it is
we who turn away.” I think I turned away.
Despite the daily grind of conference calls,
contract evaluations and email, I need to
pause and reflect on the bigger picture of
education and learning. I need to remember
what matters to the greater good of society
and to social justice. These are the ideals
that have been a constant passion in my life
and career.
In the introduction to this book, the
educational philosopher Nel Noddings
states correctly that education has strayed
incredibly far from the vision Maxine
Greene articulated when writing The
Dialectic of Freedom in 1988. “Her hope
was to open possibilities for all students
to achieve some measure of freedom in
recognizing possibilities and directing their
own lives. In contrast, today’s policies aim
to control the lives of students through
uniform preparation, uniform achievement,
and uniform futures” (xxi). Greene discusses
freedom a great deal in her many works but
never really offers a single definition of it.
Instead, she carefully collects ideas of what
freedom should include. She has stated that
in order to achieve and exercise freedom,
“young people need to be invited to engage
with the worlds of people, objects and ideas.
They must be allowed to communicate in
ways that open up spaces instead of closing
them down by prescribing beforehand
exactly what should be learned” (xxi). I
think Greene would believe that neither
students nor their teachers can truly learn
or teach in a free manner with the iron of
standardized tests shackling their wrists.
It is thus not incidental that Greene
argued so strenuously for the arts and
for the importance of their presence in
K-12 education and beyond. For her, the
arts provide a space to be creative and
free, to think with one’s imagination.
If young people are allowed this space,
they can create without limits and learn
without boundaries. Instead, today we are
all faced with many pressures to pass so
many assessments that inhibit this kind of
freedom. I acknowledge and appreciate
the arguments about accountability and
outcome measurements, but maybe what
Greene and the authors of this book are
telling us is that it is right now when
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011