Dr. Seymour B. Sarason passed away on January 28, 2010 at the age of 91. Download Seymour Sarason Obituary A member of the psychology faculty at Yale University for many years, Sarason was well known for bringing a humanistic perspective to bear in addressing the educational, social, and psychological problems faced by children and adolescents. Such an orientation put him at odds with mainstream thinking in educational psychology with its continued mechanistic emphasis on quantitative research and standardized testing. A champion of seeing the value of engagement with the arts as a way of knowing, Sarason was also deeply involved in matters pertaining to the education of teachers. In his 1999 text, Teaching as a Performing Art (Teachers College Press), he argued for the importance of seeing parallels between the education of teachers and the training of performing artists (e.g., musicians, actors, dancers, etc.). Not to be mistaken with "teacher as entertainer" (which is a terrible metaphor to adopt), Sarason noted that like the performing artist the teacher is primarily concerned with moving his or her students to a deepened and heightened emotional attention to the subject matter at hand. And like the performing artist, the prospective teacher should audition (to identify natural talent and potential) as part of the admissions process into a teacher education program and the "teacher to be" needed to engage in the rigors of practice in order to perfect one's teaching artistry.
During this time of intense public debate and confusion on how best to prepare teachers, we would do well to reconsider Sarason's ideas. His voice will be missed.
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