Teach.
Cowen: You meet an 18-year-old, and this person wants in some way to be a future version of you, Elisa New, and asks you for advice. What advice do you give them?
New: Teach
Cowen: Teach.
New: Yes, teach the young, and yes, that’s the advice. Because what teaching is, is learning to converse with others. It’s to experience a [subject] as it grows richer and richer under the attentions of a community. That’s what a classroom is. It’s a community that’s ever rewarding.
For the second time this week, I am pulling from Tyler Cowen’s interview with Elisa New. I didn’t think one post about poetry and teaching would give the topics the attention they both deserve.
I agree entirely with Elisa New’s advice. Every time I walk into a classroom, it’s a chance to practice communicating about the subject of design (communications) and the creative process. Each conversation or lecture is an iteration where I attempt to exchange ideas between myself, the students, and other professors, in pursuit of better critical thinking and stronger design outcomes. Today, for instance, I spent the day critiquing senior capstone projects. It’s hard work, the critique. You have to study the piece, understand its objectives, and communicate via questions and advice, how to make the project stronger. It’s one thing to know a project is weak. It’s another to use thoughtful words to lead them toward a better direction with actionable steps. “It’s not working,” isn’t enough. I’ve learned to be a better critic through critiquing. Even more, when I’m with other professors. In those situations, I can watch and learn from their methods. Together, with the students, we’re all, ideally, focused on serving the work. We all get better with time. The work becomes “richer and richer.” That is “ever rewarding.”
Elisa New’s response reminds of a concept by Parker Palmer of the subject-centered classroom from his book The Courage to Teach. “This is a classroom in which the best features of the teacher- and student-centered education are merged and transcended by putting not teacher, not student, but subject at the center of our attention.” Palmer elaborates, “The subject-centered classroom is characterized by the fact that the third thing has a presence so real, so vivid, so vocal, that it can hold teacher and student alike accountable for what they say and do.”
In the learning community, the university, we have the luxury to focus on the subject. When I work with clients, that’s not the case. Often, that work is client-centered. Sometimes, it’s user-centered. More often, it’s profit-centered. Don’t get me wrong. Client work is rewarding too. But I’ve developed more rapidly as a designer through teaching the last three years than I can recall any other period. With that said, I may amend Elisa’s advice slightly and encourage 18-year-olds to find a way to both teach and work at the same time. The two inform one another immensely, in my experience.