Picking up from where I left off yesterday, one question I often wonder about is can campaigners be good academics? Or are they too sure about their beliefs to keep an open mind, which is vital for research? I have met some intelligent academics who are not open to new ways of thinking at all. Marx's famous quote exhorting historians to not just interpret the world but to change it comes to mind. Is trying to change the world by interpreting it an impossible having-you-cake-and-eating-it goal?
I don't think so. At the outset, I must confess that I am instinctively not a campaigner, which I put down to my personality. I don't consider myself an intellectual whose time is better spent intellectualizing rather than knocking on doors. My discomfort with campaigning is purely down to my introverted personality.
But, I do believe academics can change their (corner of) the world while interpreting it. I wouldn't pretend to be able to teach my students to think for themselves (assuming I can think for myself) but at least I don't get in their way when they do. I fight the temptation to correct them immediately when they say something wrong and allow them to finish. And, from the feedback I have received, being generous in spirit and approachable by nature are underrated attributes for teachers. The job of a teacher is not to have students in their thrall, hanging on their every word, but to open new worlds for them.
I don't think so. At the outset, I must confess that I am instinctively not a campaigner, which I put down to my personality. I don't consider myself an intellectual whose time is better spent intellectualizing rather than knocking on doors. My discomfort with campaigning is purely down to my introverted personality.
But, I do believe academics can change their (corner of) the world while interpreting it. I wouldn't pretend to be able to teach my students to think for themselves (assuming I can think for myself) but at least I don't get in their way when they do. I fight the temptation to correct them immediately when they say something wrong and allow them to finish. And, from the feedback I have received, being generous in spirit and approachable by nature are underrated attributes for teachers. The job of a teacher is not to have students in their thrall, hanging on their every word, but to open new worlds for them.
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