Criticism Of Walt Whitman

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Critique of Whitman’s Pedagogy
(A critique of Walt Whitman’s themes and ideas in Song of Myself 6, 46, 47) Pedagogy is a teaching style that is used to help students learn. Teachers often have a unique pedagogy that they prefer to follow. Some teachers prefer to lecture, others model, some simply assign the work, and to each their own. “…there is some evidence of teachers abandoning formal pedagogies in favor of informal ones…” (Cain). Walt Whitman was no different; he preferred a hands on approach when it came to teaching, and through his approach, he learned as much from the student as they did from him. Walt Whitman had several ideas and themes that came from his pedagogy as recorded in Song of Myself 6, 46, and 47. In Song of Myself 6, Walt Whitman begins to question exactly how much an instructor can teach. Walt Whitman was known for his hands on approach when it came to learning. During his short time as a teacher he was fired for taking his students out to see the frogs, when they had good textbooks that he could have used. For instance, “instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention,” …show more content…

In this piece of literature, Whitman talks once again about a swimmer who by destroying the teacher, truly honors his style. Too many, the idea of destroying the teacher is blasphemous; however, this is the final key to proving that a teacher has produced a successful student. The students who would surpass the teacher were compared; “Like Whitman himself, our student would be an autodidact, a hungry, undisciplined, self-taught savant” (Bateman). Whitman had his own image to project, “He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my own…” (lines 1234). Whitman is saying that a student that proves he has beaten or become better than the teacher, only goes to prove how great the teacher

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