Chapter 2: Mastery

This chapter about mastery was somewhat redundant to everything we’re learned about teaching students. Of course we want them to have a mastery of the subject! Why would we want them to only get a cursory view? The speed bump comes in when it’s actually time to teach them. To teach a student so well, and in such a way that you could confidently say they have mastered a subject is quite a boast in my opinion. I think it’s because, for me, there is always more to be learned about something. Do they know the plot, the theme, the symbols, could they connect it with real life situations and ideas? Sure. But there’s always more- they could know the history of the setting and how it impacts the story, the reasons for the author’s omission of details that could be pertainent, different ways each chapter could be view, each character could be viewed. Mastery for me is a false term because there is no such thing as mastery and the best we can do, as teachers, is set up our students with a solid foundation from which to build their knowledge.