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Teacher as Stranger: Educational Philosophy for the Modern Age
Paperback written by teacher/author/philosppher Maxine Green, still relevant today.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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April 28, 2022
Although published in the 1970s, I find Greene's text contemporary and extremely relevant for potential educational reform. Greene embodies Nietzsche's conception of the philosopher as `cultural physician'. This text serves as a splendid introduction to her overall educational philosophy; whether or not this book will appeal to practitioners and education professionals in general is an issue this review will address.
If you're a practitioner looking for the type of academic writing that constructs a clear and coherent bridge between the realms of theory and practice in education, Greene's work will sorely let you down. Make no mistake about it - this is a serious `existential' mediation. Practitioners not familiar with technical terms and philosophical jargon (or the history of Western philosophy) will have an extremely difficult time with this book.
Certain reviewers on this site have been highly critical of Greene's other works, stating that (1) she tends to be `long-winded,' and (2) she writes in a meandering style that creates a labyrinth of disconnected ideas. In short, certain reviewers on this site, who failed to plumb the depths of Greene's philosophy, have written her work off as lacking substance! I am vehemently at odds with these critics, and I'll address the form, style, and content of her work below.
However, it must be noted that although I disagree with many of the unfavorable reviews of Greene's writing, she does tend toward repetition (Schopenhauer was also similarly criticized). With each major point, she feels the need to incorporate a host of thinkers sharing this view. So, if you're already familiar with the work of the philosophers, authors, and artists enlisted in defense of her claims, there's a tendency to shout out, as did Wittgenstein when reading Kierkegaard, "Enough already, I understand your point!"
Aside from this trivial annoyance, Greene is an absolutely inspirational writer and thinker - there's nothing `abstruse' or `obscurantist' about her `musings'. Importantly, she is concerned with stimulating thought of a meditative nature, the type of authentic philosophical thought that is preparatory for the inspiration of an authentic praxis, which is always antecedent to the formulation of any viable notions of the `authentic' child, teacher, curriculum, etc. Like all existential philosophy, Greene works midway between the extremes of absolutism (religious or otherwise) and nihilistic groundlessness. If, as an educator, one accepts the bleak and frightful philosophical landscape that John Gray paints, then Greene's thought might be of service, or more accurately, might serve to inspire a thinking and ontological way of being that is empowered in the movement out and beyond the (somewhat fatalistic) state of "passive nihilism," a spectre, which one might argue, insidiously haunts American education. In a world that continues to defy explanation and justification in religious, moral, or scientific terms, where does one turn? Greene turns to philosophy, and, as is consistent with the many poetic, literary, and filmic references spread liberally throughout the book, the arts, which Greene obviously reads as philosophical in nature.
Through phenomenological description, similar to that of Sartre, Camus, and Marcel, Greene calls the reader to find her own way, to tease out her own personal meanings. The work, in the end, like all great literature and philosophy, inspires the reader to work toward developing a "fundamental project, to go beyond the situations one confronts and refuse reality as given in the name of a realty to be produced." As stated, engaging this book is much like engaging the creative, imaginative writings of the modern existentialists, for the truths contained herein are not prescriptive in the sense of directing a praxis, but rather they intimate our deep responsibility for those things that might be on the approach, from out of the future, by allowing us see "facets of [our] own experience afresh"; causing us to "reevaluate some of [our] own knowledge"; to ask, for the first time, "the kinds of questions about [our] condition basic to self-consciousness; questions relating to certain themes in [our] biographies and therefore stimulating more far-reaching questions, such as those involved with philosophy."
Teacher as Stranger is more a `discourse on thinking' (Heidegger) than a book of educational philosophy. It is the case that she only deals briefly with teaching, in two chapters, and then only through allusion as opposed to the inclusion of concrete examples: Chapter Four - `Being and Learning' and Chapter Eleven - `Teacher as Stranger'. Greene squarely locates the `essence' (essence in transition) of the authentic educator in the ability to inspire students to change their outlooks, enabling them to do many practical things that relate to their individualistic `life project,' as they work to "impose increasingly complex orders upon their worlds."
Ultimately, an authentic teacher, an authentic educational project is bound up with existential insight, philosophical insight into the human condition - related to the problems of knowledge and its limitations, suffering, death, and the burden of inexorable guilt. For as Greene concludes, the 'authentic'teacher's intentions "will inevitable be affected by the assumptions [she] makes regarding human nature and human possibility."
Educators interested and experienced in reading existential philosophy, or more generally, Western philosophy, will truly appreciate this book. For those seeking a more accessible inroad to similar themes as related to teaching (albeit not identical), try the work of Ira Shor (`social justice' ideology) - he's no less relevant than Greene, but his work, simply put, is more reader-friendly (practitioner-friendly).
Dr. James M. Magrini
College of Dupage
Philosophy and Religious Studies
If you're a practitioner looking for the type of academic writing that constructs a clear and coherent bridge between the realms of theory and practice in education, Greene's work will sorely let you down. Make no mistake about it - this is a serious `existential' mediation. Practitioners not familiar with technical terms and philosophical jargon (or the history of Western philosophy) will have an extremely difficult time with this book.
Certain reviewers on this site have been highly critical of Greene's other works, stating that (1) she tends to be `long-winded,' and (2) she writes in a meandering style that creates a labyrinth of disconnected ideas. In short, certain reviewers on this site, who failed to plumb the depths of Greene's philosophy, have written her work off as lacking substance! I am vehemently at odds with these critics, and I'll address the form, style, and content of her work below.
However, it must be noted that although I disagree with many of the unfavorable reviews of Greene's writing, she does tend toward repetition (Schopenhauer was also similarly criticized). With each major point, she feels the need to incorporate a host of thinkers sharing this view. So, if you're already familiar with the work of the philosophers, authors, and artists enlisted in defense of her claims, there's a tendency to shout out, as did Wittgenstein when reading Kierkegaard, "Enough already, I understand your point!"
Aside from this trivial annoyance, Greene is an absolutely inspirational writer and thinker - there's nothing `abstruse' or `obscurantist' about her `musings'. Importantly, she is concerned with stimulating thought of a meditative nature, the type of authentic philosophical thought that is preparatory for the inspiration of an authentic praxis, which is always antecedent to the formulation of any viable notions of the `authentic' child, teacher, curriculum, etc. Like all existential philosophy, Greene works midway between the extremes of absolutism (religious or otherwise) and nihilistic groundlessness. If, as an educator, one accepts the bleak and frightful philosophical landscape that John Gray paints, then Greene's thought might be of service, or more accurately, might serve to inspire a thinking and ontological way of being that is empowered in the movement out and beyond the (somewhat fatalistic) state of "passive nihilism," a spectre, which one might argue, insidiously haunts American education. In a world that continues to defy explanation and justification in religious, moral, or scientific terms, where does one turn? Greene turns to philosophy, and, as is consistent with the many poetic, literary, and filmic references spread liberally throughout the book, the arts, which Greene obviously reads as philosophical in nature.
Through phenomenological description, similar to that of Sartre, Camus, and Marcel, Greene calls the reader to find her own way, to tease out her own personal meanings. The work, in the end, like all great literature and philosophy, inspires the reader to work toward developing a "fundamental project, to go beyond the situations one confronts and refuse reality as given in the name of a realty to be produced." As stated, engaging this book is much like engaging the creative, imaginative writings of the modern existentialists, for the truths contained herein are not prescriptive in the sense of directing a praxis, but rather they intimate our deep responsibility for those things that might be on the approach, from out of the future, by allowing us see "facets of [our] own experience afresh"; causing us to "reevaluate some of [our] own knowledge"; to ask, for the first time, "the kinds of questions about [our] condition basic to self-consciousness; questions relating to certain themes in [our] biographies and therefore stimulating more far-reaching questions, such as those involved with philosophy."
Teacher as Stranger is more a `discourse on thinking' (Heidegger) than a book of educational philosophy. It is the case that she only deals briefly with teaching, in two chapters, and then only through allusion as opposed to the inclusion of concrete examples: Chapter Four - `Being and Learning' and Chapter Eleven - `Teacher as Stranger'. Greene squarely locates the `essence' (essence in transition) of the authentic educator in the ability to inspire students to change their outlooks, enabling them to do many practical things that relate to their individualistic `life project,' as they work to "impose increasingly complex orders upon their worlds."
Ultimately, an authentic teacher, an authentic educational project is bound up with existential insight, philosophical insight into the human condition - related to the problems of knowledge and its limitations, suffering, death, and the burden of inexorable guilt. For as Greene concludes, the 'authentic'teacher's intentions "will inevitable be affected by the assumptions [she] makes regarding human nature and human possibility."
Educators interested and experienced in reading existential philosophy, or more generally, Western philosophy, will truly appreciate this book. For those seeking a more accessible inroad to similar themes as related to teaching (albeit not identical), try the work of Ira Shor (`social justice' ideology) - he's no less relevant than Greene, but his work, simply put, is more reader-friendly (practitioner-friendly).
Dr. James M. Magrini
College of Dupage
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Displaying 1 of 1 review