The LTD Project Blog

Stashed away hither and thither in this office are notes accumulating from various presentations attended over the ages, some of which only come to light when virtually everything must move for floor waxing.

This spring, if I may call it that even though it’s threatening to snow tonight in southwestern Japan, the most surprising find has been the last page of notes from a faculty development session a year ago, almost to the day. It is short, sweet, and to the point:

Instill “educational heart” and teaching skills will follow.

([details to rediscover and insert about here: presenter, title...], 2007.03.07)

Machine translation from the original, vernacular wording of the phrase in question, 教育マインド (kyouiku mind), produces the phrase in quotations marks above. “Educational soul” might be just as accurate for an off-the-cuff translation.

It no doubt will be an adventure to explore the connotations of “educational heart,” one requiring suspension of beliefs regarding the easy-come, laissez-faire implications regarding development of appropriate teaching practices at the university level.