Meridian’s teaching practices

While reading through Meridian, one line that made me think was the quote from Meridian that said, “I imagine good teaching as a circle of earnest people sitting down to ask each other meaningful questions. I don’t see it as a handling down of answers” (p. 203). This was a very interesting thing to read because it relates to my life today and the way that I learn and work in a class setting. While in the majority of my classes I work in a stadium kind of seating, where the professor is in the front of the room giving a lecture and the students are in their seats taking notes. This is very different from both of the English classes that I have taken here at Geneseo, where we are all seated in a circle (the professor included). Just like Meridian believes, this allows for everyone to ask questions, both teachers and students, instead of just the teacher saying what the right answer should be. This brings up a big point on education and the “correct” way students should be taught. As explained in the “Literature into Culture” section of Interdisciplinarity, Moran speaks on how schools and colleges have “determined” this way that elite schools should be teaching their students, and sitting in a circle among your teacher has strayed from this idea. It is crucial to then look at the effects that both of these teachings have on the students. For Meridian, she believes that the only way to teach to ask her students questions and also have then ask in return. She believes that this is the way to form holistic students. From what I learned from my English classes at Geneseo, I can’t help but agree.