A Teachable Moment: Summit or Summons
-
Dr. Everett Piper Everett Piper's Blog
- Updated Aug 05, 2009
In all the media hype and hoopla over last week’s “Beer Summit” something has been conspicuously missing. The glaring omission: The event’s purpose as expressed by the person who called the meeting to order in the first place.
You see nearly every other
But with the much ballyhooed “Beer Summit,” such shared
ownership of goals, strategy and objectives seemed to be lacking. All we knew of the event’s intended outcomes
was what we were told by its One and only organizer and its One and only
host. As far as we knew, no other input
was offered (or sought?) and, in fact, it seemed to be clear that our
Teachable moment? I don’t know about you but when I hear these words used by someone in authority they almost always mean that this is a moment for “them to teach and you and me to learn.” In other words, the person calling the “teachable moment” to order is saying “I am going to talk and you need to listen. This is a time for the teacher to teach and the student to learn.”
So what I argue has been missing in the media coverage of
this entire “summit” is the presumed pedagogical paradigm of our
Teacher-In-Chief. To say it another way
– Shouldn’t we be asking what exactly it was that the
For example, did our
Did our
Did our
Did the
Did Mr. Obama’s lesson plan include anything about the time tested truth of justice being blind and the implicit racism of assuming mistreatment and victimization simply because of what you see in the skin color of your accuser?
And finally, did the
Yes this was a teachable moment but somehow I doubt that the
above pedagogy was ever employed and I sincerely question whether our
My suspicion: This was not so much a summit to debate ideas and differing opinions but rather it was more of a summons where the One in charge, taught others what to think, what to do, and what to say – Because, after all, to disagree with the Principal when you are summoned into his office for a “teachable moment” would be – Well how should I say it? – Stupid.