Walt Whitman Pedagogy Analysis - 1035 Words

When someone first hears the word, pedagogy, what do they think of? A toddler trying to say that he has a pet dog? Maybe it’s a modern day rapper’s name? Or even a generic brand of Grape Nuts? In reality a pedagogy is a teaching, instructing, or prompting of children to do a certain action to better their lives. When many people hear this, they first person they think of is Walt Whitman, and for a good reason. Many of Whitmans Writings have pedagogic ideas in them, The â€Å"Destroy the Teacher† passage, â€Å"When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer†, and â€Å"Passage 6† from â€Å"Song of Myself† are just a few of his strongest pieces where he expresses his ideas on pedagogy. Walt Whitman’s three main ideas on pedagogy are that the teacher’s main purpose is so†¦show more content†¦Interesting word choice, â€Å"destroying† the teacher. He knows that once the student becomes smarter and surpasses the teacher, the teacher has no purpose for the student anymore, so in reality, the student â€Å"destroyed† them. In â€Å"When I Heard the Learnd Astronomer† by Walt Whitman, he is trying to portray that we cannot be spoon fed with our learning, we have to experience by ourselves. He starts off with, â€Å"When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars†. He says that the teacher can give you the information, tell you how to do the math, and show you the pictures, but is that really going to help you? Why be given the information if you can collect the information yourself, why be told how to do the math if you can learn and figure it out yours elf, why be given pictures if you can go out in nature and see everything with your own eyes. This was Whitman’s main focus, it’s easy to be spoon fed information, but what is really challenging is the going out, getting the information, and experiencing it for yourself.Show MoreRelatedInfluential Factors Of The Audience s Understanding1425 Words   |  6 Pagesopinion between Kevin J. H. Dettmar and Sarfraz Manzoor on Dead Poets Society is one such example. Dettmar states that: â€Å"Dead Poets Society is a terrible defense of the humanities.† This is because he thinks the film is void of literary criticism or analysis; the only things left are misleading and deeply seductive. On the contrary, Manzoor cites Dead Poets Society as his favorite film that is un-cynical, idealistic, hopeful, and which inspires him when he needed it the most. (His understanding of this