The Ideal Learning Relationship Revisited

After class discussion on a metaphor of the ideal between student and instructor I realized a couple of things:

1. Writing a blog, or anything in general won't work when you're very tired. Especially if you need to be convincing.

2. My metaphor still works. Especially because my metaphor was aimed at the ideal relationship between graduate student and instructor. This is an easier relationship to define because a graduate student has a desire to be there, because if they don't want to be there their life would be horrible. A metaphor for the ideal relationship between an undergrad and instructor is a bit more difficult to pin down.

PINS!!!! OK, here we go. The ideal relationship between an teacher and an undergrad student is like bumper bowling. The student is the ball, and the bumpers are the instructor. The goal of the student is to gain knowledge, and in this metaphor it is to knock down all the pins.

Now, as long as the bowling ball is going marginally straight, it will make it to the end of the lane and knock down some pins, usually more than five. Sometimes the ball doesn't need the bumpers, and can do just fine, but the bumpers act like a safety valve for either piece of mind or damage control. Other times the bumper is important and gives the bowler confidence to not use the bumpers in the future (ok, the bowler the student too, I never said I was good at metaphors). Some times that ball is just not going to knock over pins regardless if the bumpers are there or not, and maybe curling or tennis should be considered...