from Pixnio<\/a> and adapted by Bart Everson in Photoshop using the Chalkduster font. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe etymology bears this out. The Old English t\u00e6can<\/em>, root of our word \"teach,\" didn't really mean \"to teach\" back in the olden days.[2]<\/sup> The word that meant \"to teach\" was actually l\u00e6ran<\/em>, which is related to our word \"learn.\"[3]<\/sup> This is highly amusing to me, but it makes clear that the two concepts are in a relationship that is intimate and reciprocal yet asymmetrical. Learning without teaching? Sure, we can learn plenty without another human teaching us. Teaching without learning? It happens all the time, but it's generally considered problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe meaning of t\u00e6can<\/em> was \"to show,\" a notion that persists in contemporary ideas about teaching, which can also be problematic. I'll finally open up my dictionary to confirm it. (Hefts heavy book.) Yes, here it is: the first definition of \"teach\" begins with \"to show.\" Often, we equate teaching with simply showing stuff to students. The teacher stands at the head of the class and reveals facts, figures, content, information, Truth, or whatever it is that professors profess. This paradigm was forcibly installed during the Second Industrial Revolution and has been labelled the Factory Model of education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I grew up under this model of teaching, and maybe you did too. It's sometimes called the \"sage on the stage,\" always contrasted with the \"guide on the side.\" The maxim holds that we should be moving from the former to the latter, from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning. This move was initially advocated in K-12, with the slogan entering the popular lexicon in 1971[4]<\/sup>, but change is slow. It wasn't until 1993 that a professor of education, Alison King, published an article in the journal College Teaching<\/em> under the title \"From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side.\"[5]<\/sup> It's since become so familiar in higher education that it's aptly labeled a clich\u00e9.[6]<\/sup> The truth is we're still trying to implement these ideas in the academy. Change, as I may have mentioned, is slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne more observation and then I swear I'll shut up. In my own usage, at least, I recognize the word teaching shows up almost exclusively as a verbal noun, rarely as an action verb. This tendency, which I associate with colonialism,[7]<\/sup> is emblematic of the very problems I've discussed here, to say nothing of my overweening focus on definition itself. You'll notice I've spoken very little about what teaching could be, what it should be, how it feels, what it requires of those who attempt it. I value these other ways of knowing, and recognize I've taken a very narrow approach to a very broad topic. I haven't talked about what makes teaching good or effective. In order to do that, I really would need to define learning, and that seems like an even more daunting challenge. You'll have to wait until I come down with another cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA note on AI consultation:<\/strong> I wrote every word of the preceding essay myself, but portions of the research and editorial development were informed by consultations with an AI assistant (Claude-Sonnet-4.6 run through a custom bot on Poe). In other words, I shared my prose with AI to check facts, as well as to suggest where to expand and where to cut back. AI also formatted the footnotes. All analysis, interpretation, and final prose are my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFootnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- I wouldn't want anyone to suppose I was contemplating such matters on campus. After all, as computer scientist David Levy has noted in many talks and presentations, \"just as hospitals aren\u2019t places to get well, universities aren\u2019t places to think (deeply).\" David M. Levy, personal communication with the author, August 28, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Douglas Harper, \"Etymology of teach,\" Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed September 11, 2026, https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/teach.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Douglas Harper, \"Etymology of learn,\" Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed September 11, 2026, https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/learn.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- This claim may be considered controversial in the realm of educational development, so I'd better back it up. Examples from the popular press are too numerous for exhaustive citation; these are the five earliest that I've found:
\u2022 Robin Dinsmoore, \u201cMany Phases of Social Studies Are Considered at Convention,\u201d The Brookfield News (Brookfield, WI), April 8, 1971, 30.
\u2022 \u201cDebt to Horace Mann,\u201d Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, MA), May 6, 1971, 4.
\u2022 Patricia Cooney, \u201cThey\u2019re Getting Kids Ready for 2001,\u201d The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, IA), July 18, 1971, 37.
\u2022 \u201cStay Out of Education\u2019s Way, Teachers Urged,\u201d The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL), July 21, 1971, 38.
\u2022 Richard Gulick, \u201cSuperintendent\u2019s Notes,\u201d The Falmouth Outlook (Falmouth, KY), November 19, 1971, 5.<\/li>\n\n\n\n - Alison King, \"From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side,\" College Teaching 41, no. 1 (1993): 30, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/87567555.1993.9926781.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Charles D. Morrison, \"From 'Sage on the Stage' to 'Guide on the Side': A Good Start,\" International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8, no. 1 (2014): Article 4, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.20429\/ijsotl.2014.080104.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- On verbs, indigenous languages, and the colonial imposition of European nominal categories, see Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013), particularly the chapter \"Learning the Grammar of Animacy.\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teaching? You want me to talk about teaching? You think I have something to say on the topic? I guess it's a reasonable expectation. I'm married to a teacher, and most of my friends are teachers, and I work in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development. I mean, it's right there ...continue reading \"What Is Teaching?\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[308],"class_list":["post-22824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-integrative","tag-teaching-learning","h-entry","hentry","h-as-article"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-5W8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2669,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/advantages-of-teaching-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":22824,"position":0},"title":"Advantages of Teaching Online","author":"Karen Nichols","date":"January 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Teaching online has several positive aspects. 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