This essay describes what it means to live with existential self-doubt, explores how such doubt emerges in educational encounters, and examines some educational benefits and challenges of uncertainty and doubt. Mordechai Gordon begins his analysis by describing the type of self-doubt that Paul Cézanne embodied, that is, of an artist who painted…

Taking our lead from Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet," this project represents our attempt to stimulate dialogue between 30 physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) early career academics (ECAs) and 11 PESP professors. First, the ECAs were invited to write a narrative around their experiences as PESP ECAs. Second, a narrative…

Taking our lead from Rainer Maria Rilke's (1929) "Letters to a Young Poet", our broader project aimed to create a space for dialogue and intergenerational learning between Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Early Career Academics (ECAs) and members of the PESP professoriate. This paper focuses specifically on the experiences of…

In this essay, Mordechai Gordon explores the significance of Rilke's challenge to "live the questions" and embrace uncertainty with respect to the quest for certainty in education. The quest for certainty in education refers to our desire to gain a sense of psychological security and more control over a field that is fundamentally indeterminate.…

There is a certain kind of liberal educator who bases his or her practice on a particular attitude toward the "Big Questions." The questions of fundamental literacy in K-12 education, or of expertise in vocational and professional education, may be just as important, but they are seen as quite different in kind. Indeed, the questions of liberal…

Draws on the themes in Rainer Maria Rilke's "Buch der Bilder" ("The Book of Pictures") to show the similarity between the maturation of young girls and the poet's development as an artist. (DS)

Includes four teachers' recommendations of summer reading for other teachers. Details Anita Shreve's "The Last Time They Met"; Barbara Kingsolver's "Small Wonder"; Lynda Barry's "Cruddy"; and Ina Rilke's "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress." (PM)

Considers influences on the design and production of books at the turn of the century, including the influences of symbolists and other European poets (e.g., Blake, Wilde, Verhaeren, Maeterlinck, Baudelaire, Mallarme, Huysmans, George, von Hofmannsthal, and Rilke); book designers, typographers, and printers; and the Art Nouveau school. (DMM)

Presents two letters to a young writer, modeled on the influential "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke. Notes the first letter situates itself when a young writer first turns toward poetry; and the second addresses the relationship between mentorship and the imagination, questioning the right of any writer to presume to guide the…

This book offers successful classroom practices that encourage students to learn purposefully and constructively by reflecting on their own learning processes and by making connections between what they read (whether verbal or visual texts) and the lives they lead. Extending from middle and high school through college composition and English…