Our grandson is coming to stay with us for a couple of days on Wednesday. I loves to do artistic things with me, and we usually manage to pass some of the time during his visits doing something creative. The question is: what should I offer on this occasion? I was led to think about this today by my current experience of studying Italian with online teachers. My regular teacher is away at the moment* and she arranged for me to work with a colleague and friend of hers until her return. It has been interesting to compare the teaching styles of the two of them. With my temporary teacher the conversation class is largely just that …. conversation. She certainly puts me at my ease, and we chat away, with a good deal of laughter. The lessons of my longer-term teacher are much more structured, and clearly she is working to achieve certain anticipated outcomes anticipated. Her sessions rely much more on the clever things it is possible to do these days with computers (split screens, and so on.)
One of the interesting contrasts between them has been their choice of material. My original teacher, discovering my interest in Italian modernism, set up a couple of sessions in which we looked in detail at two pictures by Renato Guttuso. My temporary teacher has pressed my too talk about my own work, and my experience of different media. So it is not only a matter of contrasting styles of teaching, but also of my relationship to the subject-matter …. relative involvement or detachment. Work with her is much more a matter of self-expression, which is quite difficult in my own language as well as in hers.
Although I made my former career as a university teacher, and matters relating to teaching do interest me, I would not want to say at this moment which is the “better” approach to teaching. No doubt I will continue to reflect on these things, especially as I shape up to a couple of art sessions with my grandson.
*Actually she is sailing around the coast of Spain. It all sounds quite adventurous and I look forward to expanding my nautical vocabulary on her return.