lifting weights. If you start by pressing 100 pounds and work at it diligently, you will build mus-
cle mass while increasing the number of your “reps” and the weight you can comfortably lift.
SECTION A: MY BEST TEACHERS 1: DIRECTED EXPERIENCE,
SCAFFOLDING, AND CREATIVE MALADJUSTMENT
Some of my best teachers did not consider themselves teachers at all. I did not meet them in
schools and I was already an adult when our paths crossed. My experience with these teach-
ers reinforces the idea that teaching and learning go on all the time and in all places—but
also, that certain conditions make teaching more effective.
According to John Dewey the key to effective teaching is directing classroom experience
so that students are able to achieve educational goals. When learners use their understand-
ing of these experiences to build on what they already know, they are able to construct new
meaning or knowledge. Lev Vygotzky called this process scaffolding.
The experiences I am going to describe in this section and in “My Best Teachers 2” took
place in a summer sleep-away camp located in the Catskill Mountains of New York State.
Camp Hurley was sponsored by the United Community Centers, a community center in
Brooklyn, New York. I worked at Camp Hurley during the summer between the ages of 19
and 24. It is here, as a result of my directed experience and scaffolding, that I learned how to
be a teacher.
My best teacher at Camp Hurley was a man named Jerry Harris. When we first met in
1969, Jerry was in his early 50s, a World War II veteran who had spent most of his working
life as a machinist making tools and parts out of metal. I was a college student, a novice and
unskilled community volunteer who joined Jerry and other women and men on work week-
ends as we prepared the camp for the summer.
Jerry was kind of gruff and irascible. While he was not interested in being buddy-buddy
with the younger volunteers, he definitely enjoyed working with us. What Jerry did best was
demystify tools and help us become problem solvers by creating directed experiences and
building on our prior knowledge.
Lesson #1. Keep your cool. Analyze the problem. Find a solution.The younger volun-
teers, especially college students caught up in the political activism of the “60s,” had a ten-
dency to glorify work and place skilled workers like Jerry on a pedestal. We considered
their skills as nearly magical, rather than things that could be learned. Jerry let us watch
him as he worked as long as we did not disturb him. If we were especially attentive, he let
us try our hand at the task and work with him. He also supervised us in our initial efforts to
use a tool before he sent us off to work on a cabin somewhere out in the woods. Once, one
of the drivers lost the keys to our school bus. Most of us were on the verge of panicking.
Jerry, with my minimal assistance but avid attention, proceeded to rewire it, bypassing the
ignition switch so we could drive it home.
Lesson #2. If you work hard, you can learn to do the job.Jerry taught us that tools were
for performing tasks, not totems to be worshipped; they were to be respected but not
feared, and they could be used safely and skillfully if we cared to learn. Under his tutelage,
I learned to use a chain saw to cut up a fallen tree, to use hydraulic jacks to lift a cabin so
we could replace rotten foundation supports, and to locate a plumbing problem, disman-
tle the system, and reconnect and solder joints.
Lesson #3. Don’t be afraid to bend the tools or the rules.Jerry believed that technical
solutions had to be within the limitations of tools, the environment, our skills, and money
available for materials. He valued what he could do, and he understood what he could not.36 CHAPTER 2