Adler And Van Doren's Essay: The Activity And Art Of Reading

In the Adler and Van Doren’s essay titled “The Activity and Art of Reading,” we are asked to respond to the conclusion that a teacher can help the students, but the student “must do the learning.” His argument, for me, seems to be a bit difficult to follow and yet I found myself nodding my head at the same time. I am not in total agreement, but with my best efforts I am trying to understand, in full, the context which he communicated to his audience. Having been a former helicopter instructor myself, there were numerous similarities between the attitudes he had with his students and the attitude I had with mine; particularly with respect to a student’s ability to learn. According to the teachings of Abraham Maslow, there is a hierarchy
of human needs that come in to play as it pertains to learning. This psychologist shared insights about people’s ability to learn that most have either overlooked or has never heard of before. In summary, he says that the Hierarchy of Needs (often represented as a pyramid with five levels of needs) is a motivational theory in psychology that while people aim to meet basic needs, they seek to meet successively higher needs in the form of a hierarchy – Basic Needs, Safety Needs, Social Needs, Esteem Needs, and Self-Actualization(1943). These needs must be met before any further achievements are accomplished. The effects of or the lack of the needs being met will have a huge impact to learning. People learn by a process through their experiences and gain knowledge through study and instruction. So the instructor plays a large role in whatever a student learns. Is there a cultural component? Absolutely! If our physical safety needs are met, then there is a level of threat in the learning environment. In the beginning, learning comes from perceptions which triggers one or more of the five senses in learning. These senses can or do have factors affecting ones perception. Of the five factors that can affect the student’s ability to learn, the element of threat narrows the perceptional field. For example, someone from the south will talk differently or have a dialect that is opposite then someone from the north. How and if they are bullied or intimidated will also cause a great deal interference to their ability to learn. It is important to provide a secure and nonthreatening environment, which will help the student maintain a favorable self-conception that could be or are keys to their development. So far, what has been gained? Must a student do all the learning? As rhetorical as this question may seem, I would say no. There are numerous other factors that must come in to play as well. The student must be motivated, sure, but how can we not include the importance of the instructor’s role in their ability to learn? Psychologically, it is imperative that the teacher must play their role with the level of responsibility and engagement that we expect from the student. To think or say otherwise is to always expect more from the person who is trying to learn from the material than from the person who purports to know it. It is this mindset and this removal of shared responsibility that can lead to scapegoating and victimizing. No wonder the student would have a difficult time learning. If these ideas or theories of Adler and Van Doren’s are a central part to any classroom, this school would surely produce cold and callous graduates.