Kyle Wassmuth

Article #4 Tobin Review

In Lad Tobins essay OPINION: Self-Disclosure as a Strategic Teaching Tool: What I Do

and DontTell My Students, he shows the effective strategic use of self-disclosure, or telling
your students personal aspects of your life, and what a teacher should avoid when doing so. He
starts out his essay by speaking about a group discussion in which a first-year instructor had
asked a question to the group regarding whether or not she should express something personal
to one of her students. The group begins to ask her questions so she may be able to answer the
questions herself. The ultimate answer the group gives her is as it can be expected: It
depends. It depends, Tobin says, because it all boils down to reward for the student vs risk of
the teacher. He then goes into how common this self-disclosure is used by politicians, and then
how to apply it into the classroom. He then says definitively what he is arguing: that selfdisclosure should be evaluated with the same rigor and respect that we bring to those other
discourses, and should be employed only when it is an equally good or better rhetorical choice
(199). He then cites some examples of the type of personal writing he is arguing for, followed by
some personal examples he uses for personal writing in his own classroom (were going meta
here). He ends his essay with a very strong note that while this might work for him, it may not
work for some other teachers and that the only answer he can truly give is simply It depends.
I love this essay and the concept it is because I am so narrative drawn. I agree that you should
probably not share everything with our students, but if I want them to share some of their
personal experiences in their writing, I have to be able to share some things from my personal
life as well I almost dont like how neither here nor there he makes it sound, but I completely
understand why he does it.