The Skillful Teacher

participants verbally slug it out to gain recognition and affirmation
from the teacher. Sometimes the frequency of a student’s verbal
contributions—almost regardless of their lucidity or relevance—
becomes the criterion for judging participation. Furthermore, unless
the pattern of participation is deliberately disrupted in the first cou-
ple of meetings of the course, the pecking order is firmly established
by the third meeting. This pecking order is powerfully self-fulfilling;
the longer a student remains silent, the more intimidating becomes
the prospect of speaking.
Preparing Students for Discussion
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T
HE
S
KILLFUL
T
EACHER
These problematic elements of discussion are not just elements
of Foucault’s analysis, they are also my life! As a student I was so
unconfident and shy in discussions, and so aware of the norm pre-
scribing that good group members only made profound comments,
that I never wanted to say anything unless I could guarantee that
my contribution would be met with universal acclaim and admira-
tion. Consequently, I would find out the topic of the discussion
beforehand, carefully rehearse some stunningly insightful contribu-
tion, and then arrive at the discussion site ready to be the first per-
son in the group to blurt out my comments. That way I knew I
would register a check mark on the teacher’s sociometric mental
map as having participated in the requisite manner the norm
implied. Also, if I could be the first to speak, my comments would
not suffer by comparison with previous contributions. Unfortu-
nately, my wishfully penetrating and sophisticated interjections
often had little to do with the way the leader opened the discussion
on any particular day, and I was left looking and feeling foolish. So
much energy expended on such a meaningless performance! In this
situation learning was the last thing I had in mind where discus-
sions were concerned. Performing, not learning, was the point. In
this chapter and the next, I lay out some ideas to stop students’
channeling their energies into the kinds of pointless performances I
engaged in during my own college discussions.