Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraphy
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction The Moral of the Story
- Chapter 1 Walnut
- Chapter 2 J. O.
- Chapter 3 Forgiveness and the Thin Red Line
- Chapter 4 “I Got Nothing!”
- Chapter 5 “It’s an Important Political Problem. I Should Know about It.” Agency
- Chapter 6 Nicole’s Father is NOT German! The Moral Salience of Difference
- Chapter 7 Science Fiction Fantasy, Moral Imagination and the Ability to Conceptualize Your Way Out of a Problem
- Chapter 8 Passion
- Chapter 9 Cat
- Chapter 10 Best Friends Forever
- Chapter 11 Wretched, Slacker Disney Child
- Chapter 12 Chloe, Nicole and the Elephant in the Parlor: The Last Lecture and Some Final Thoughts on Ethics and Character
- Notes
- References
- Index
Chapter 12 - Chloe, Nicole and the Elephant in the Parlor: The Last Lecture and Some Final Thoughts on Ethics and Character
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 October 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraphy
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction The Moral of the Story
- Chapter 1 Walnut
- Chapter 2 J. O.
- Chapter 3 Forgiveness and the Thin Red Line
- Chapter 4 “I Got Nothing!”
- Chapter 5 “It’s an Important Political Problem. I Should Know about It.” Agency
- Chapter 6 Nicole’s Father is NOT German! The Moral Salience of Difference
- Chapter 7 Science Fiction Fantasy, Moral Imagination and the Ability to Conceptualize Your Way Out of a Problem
- Chapter 8 Passion
- Chapter 9 Cat
- Chapter 10 Best Friends Forever
- Chapter 11 Wretched, Slacker Disney Child
- Chapter 12 Chloe, Nicole and the Elephant in the Parlor: The Last Lecture and Some Final Thoughts on Ethics and Character
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Chloe returns this weekend for college and Thursday is my last class with a wonderful group of students. I shall miss all of them. It's always sad to say goodbye to students, people who were strangers at the beginning of the term but who—in many cases—became friends as the quarter progresses. Saying goodbye to my daughter and to these students makes me think about what I am giving them as they go out into the world and whether I have done for them what I should to equip them against all the things that can—that will—befall them. Have I done my job, as a mother and as a teacher?
As I was pondering this question, I ran across a poem about teaching that I would like to share with you in this last lecture as we say goodbye. One of the reasons I like the poem is that it reminds me of the kind of books I poured over during my summers spent with my grandparents in Walnut. These were not great literature by any means, consisting mostly of stories and poetry out of date even then, school textbooks in many cases, filled with the kind of material my grandparents were required to memorize in school and, in this instance anyway, oozing all the sentimentality and Christian religion that dominated the American educational system at the turn of the nineteenth–twentieth centuries, when my grandparents were young. (In fact, the poem was published by Glennice L. Harmon in 1948.) Despite its slightly sappy overtones, I decided to share it with you, my students in what has been an exceptionally rewarding class for me, since I often find it easier to speak of deep feelings through someone else rather than expressing them directly. So here is the poem, with apologies for the syrupy sentimentality.
They Ask Me Why I Teach
Glennice L. Harmon
They ask me why I teach,
And I reply,
Where could I find more splendid company?
There sits a statesman,
Strong, unbiased, wise,
Another later Webster,
Silver-tongued,
And there a doctor
Whose quick, steady hand
Can mend a bone,
Or stem the lifeblood's flow.
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- Information
- The Unspoken Morality of ChildhoodFamily, Friendship, Self-Esteem and the Wisdom of the Everyday, pp. 121 - 136Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2022