Roehm, Marilyn

English

The College at Brockport, State University of New York: Digital Commons @Brockport

Philosophic Exchange
Volume 4
Number 1 Volume 4 (1973) Article 10
1973
A Response to Cognition and Consciousness: The
Humanities and the Elementary School Teacher
Marilyn Roehm
LaSalle College
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Roehm, Marilyn (1973) "A Response to Cognition and Consciousness: The Humanities and the Elementary School Teacher,"
Philosophic Exchange: Vol. 4 : No. 1 , Article 10.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/phil_ex/vol4/iss1/10
MARILYN ROEHM 
Assis·tant Professor of Education 
LaSalle College 
1
Roehm: A Response to Cognition and Consciousness
Published by Digital Commons @Brockport, 1973
A RESPONSE TO COGNITION AND CONSCIOUSNESS: THE HUMANITIES 
FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER 
by 
Marilyn Roehm 
The following response to Dr. Greene's paper comes out of a perceptual· 
existential approach to .Psychology. This approach is sometimes referred to as 
Third Force Psychology. It expresses a deep concern with questions of man's 
being and becoming. It is a point of view that sees people as growing, dynamic 
organisms. It regards human beings not as things to be made or molded but as 
unique events in the process of becoming. It is of great importance for educa· 
tion. "In particular, it provides the framework for a 'self as instrument' approach 
to teacher education".1 
For quite some time now we have been preoccupied with the "behavioral 
competencies" approach to teacher education with an emphasis upon teaching 
teachers how they ought to behave. If, however, behavior is a function of per­
ception, it is then obvious that we must concem ourselves with the "inner life" 
of our students. Simple exposure to subject matter is not enough. "The 
maturation of an effective professional worker requires changes in the student's 
perceptions-his feelings, attitudes and beliefs and his understandings of him· 
self and his world.112 This is no easy matter, for what lies inside the individual 
is not open to direct manipulation and control. It is unlikely lo change except 
with the active involvement of the student in lhe process. Of all the perceptions 
existing for an individual, none are so important as those he has about himself. 
Each of us has many ways in wh(ch we see ourselves. I suspect that this is why 
early in her paper, Dr. Greene suggests that "The contemporary question is 
'Who am I?' or 'What can I make of myself?' ,,3 
"A teacher's understanding and acceptance o f  himself is the most important 
requirement in any effort he makes to help students know themselves and to 
gain healthy attitudes of self-acceptance" .4 Changes in self and self-conscious­
ness are revealed in the ways one sees himself and sees the world as he ac­
quires knowledge, skills, and roles and ·experiences shifts in beliefs, goals, 
attitudes, and values. It is Dr. Greene's proposition that through the study of the 
humanities this self -understanding or self-consciousness can be facilitated. 
As a psychologist, it has become increasingly clear over the years that self. 
understanding requires something quite different from the methods, study plans, 
and skills of a "know-how" sort that are usually emphasized in education. 
Methods and techniques, group work, role playing and other devices are useful 
at certain points. But these educational techniques are not what is primarily 
needed. They can be used merely as a kind of external manipulation. When so 
used, they do not further, and may even defeat the purpose we are seeking 
here. What is needed is a more personal kind of searching, which will enable the 
teacher to identify his own concerns and to share the concerns of his students. 
One significant approach to this personal kind of searching is suggested by 
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Philosophic Exchange, Vol. 4 [1973], No. 1, Art. 10
http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/phil_ex/vol4/iss1/10
A RESPONSE TO COGNITION AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
Dr. Greene. "Treating philosophy as a distinctive human activity, I have in mind 
the asking of particular kinds of questions-interesting questions, what some call 
"queer11 questions, unanswerable by purely formal statements or by statements 
of empirical fact . . .  They have to do with the clarification of terms."5 
Further support for the concept of helping students to develop a method of 
inquiry and an active involvement in learning comes from a study by P. E. 
Jacob. 6 Jacob studied the change in attitudes among college students as a result 
of completing courses in the liberal arts. Significant r,m.tionships could not be 
established between college courses completed and changes in student attitudes. 
It seems clear then, that teaching which deals exclusively with the recognition 
(identification and definition) and recall of facts has little influence on behavior. 
It follows then that "If the humanities are to be relevant today, it seems to 
me, they must connect with the struggle to be".1 "Among the things I am 
suggesting here is that such awakening can be advanced by involvement in the 
humanities if that involvement is self-conscious and pervaded by worthwhile 
questioning". 8 
The basic principle of learning, as I see it. is this: Any item of information 
will affect an individual's behavior only in the degree to which he has discovered 
its personal meaning for him. The production of effective teachers will require 
helping each student to explore and discover his personal meanings about sub· 
ject matter, people, purposes, and learning about methods and about himself. 
The source of many of our failures in teacher education, it now seems clear, is 
that we have not sufficiently understood that professional training must operate 
on these deeper, more personal, levels of learning. We have assumed that 
knowing and behaving are one and that the time-honored ways of teaching 
subject matter are appropriate for teaching people to teach as well. "Our 
effort has been involved with teaching our students about teaching instead of 
helping them to become teachers".9 Instead, professional teacher education 
must be an intensely human process designed to involve lhe student deeply and 
personally. 
Dr. Greene's paper gives us another avenue for helping the student become 
more aware of the past and through a study of the humanities, a clearer "self· 
consciousness". She discusses the .humanities as resources, as "possibilities 
which-if appropriated and acted upon-may arouse individuals to self -con­
sciousness and the kind-of knowing that transforms what is given into what 
might be".1 0  
It becomes increasingly evident that for the humanities to effectively meet 
the challenge of strengthening our hope for more informed sensitive teachers, 
the ·teachers of the humanities will have to directly involve their students in the 
proces.5 of their own education. 
In conclusion, I would like to quote a section from Kahlil Gibran's The_ 
Prophet: 
78 
No man can reveal to you aught but 
that which already lies half asleep in the 
dawning of your knowledge. 
3
Roehm: A Response to Cognition and Consciousness
Published by Digital Commons @Brockport, 1973
MARILYN ROEHM 
The teacher who walks in the shadow 
of the temple, among his followers, gives 
not of his wisdom but rather of his faith 
and his lovingness. 
If he is indeed wise he does not bid 
you enter the house of his wisdom, but 
rather leads you to the threshold of your 
own mind . . .  1 1  
FOOTNOTES 
1 Arthur W .  Combs, The Professional Education of Te�hera: A Perceptual View of Teacher 
�reparation (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1965) p. 14. 
Combs, ibid., p. 12. SMaxine Greene, Cognition and Consciousness: HumaniHea for the Elementary School reacher, this volume, p. 7. 
Arthur T. Jersild, When Teachers Face Therruelues (Teachers College Press, Teache:rs �ollege, Columbia University, 1956) p. 3. 
Greene, op. cit., P. 1 3. 
SPhillip E. Jacob, Changing Values in College (New York: Harper and Row Pub., 1967). 
7 Greene, op. cit., p. 7. 8Greene, ibid., p. 15. 
9sombs, op. cit., p, 28. 
1 Greene, op. cit., p, 5. 
11 Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1923) p, 56. 
, 
79 
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http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/phil_ex/vol4/iss1/10


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