on teaching

"…Teaching is an interactive practice that begins and ends with seeing the student. This is more complicated than it seems, for it is something that is ongoing and never completely finished. The student grows and changes, the situation shifts, and seeing becomes an evolving challenge. As layers of mystification and obfuscation are peeled away, as a student becomes more fully present to the teacher, experiences and ways of thinking and knowing that were initially obscure become the ground on which an authentic and vital teaching practice can be constructed.”

From: To Teach: The Journey Of A Teacher By William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2001