Giro di Trentino e Veneto

This is a little travel writing celebrating a cyclotour two summers ago. I had entered it for a competition that came up in The Guardian, but it is far too geeky! Still, I thought it's a shame it was sitting around on my computer, rather than being published in the blogosphere!

Giro di Trentino e Veneto

Fixing the pedals onto a bike you must tighten them on each side in a forwards direction. That’s what didn’t seem obvious; when screwing ‘righty loosey’ I had thought the regurgitating thread was suffering from Ryan Air baggage handling. Amidst this frustration, was a cyclist’s urge to disappear into the landscape that had laid across the aeroplane’s descent over Lake Garda; a blue, mountainous profile, far exceeding the flyover on Google Earth, from where I premeditated on the route on which I was now a pixel:

Verona to Venice, nine days of cycling and camping in the Dolomites.

Outside were gentle waves of heat mixed with crop spray. Under a leisurely pace an elderly local man invited me along his evening ride, directing me the few miles to reach my cycling companion, who was waiting at the campsite on the south west shore of the lake. The photogenic peninsula of Sirmione became our decided point of departure, from where we travelled occidentale touching on Lake Garda’s small beaches and jetties, through adventurous tunnels, gallerias, to the Lego town of Limone. By the time we got to Riva, at the head of the lake, we already gleaned an advantage over motorists who had been unable to drive off the road before views, or stop chivalrously by drinking fountains.

Yet as a cyclotourist you can only ever envy the food and the lifestyle, you can’t take it with you, not even as a souvenir. In addition camping makes this so unattainable you may as well fall back on stove cooking, and so find yourselves frugally transgressing the equivalent of specials boards: Risotto, Porcini, Gnocchi - and stocking pesto and regional honey in panniers. Our mounting supplies of speck and rocket soon embroiled us in a customary two hour lunch every day, but despite a pressing schedule, we needed it.

From the second day we were cycling in the shadow of the Giro d’Italia, over the hills North East of Trento. Stages 14 and 15 of the Giro crossed the region in May. The road graffiti still faintly visible now cheered us on: “Cin cin” (here’s to another 16% climb). We lifted our water bottles sardonically to Alpe Pampeago. This was the gateway to the Dolomites, and the wild camping by Lago di Carezza was the epitome – the scenery sculpted and transfigured before us, the valleys thickly fertile over endless descents through the forest lines below dolomite outcrops – we were diving to once deep sea beds, where titanic coral reefs had been, in glacial motion, drawn up by the alps.

In the towns, the stove cooking went too far . When we had been sighted brewing tea in the market squares of Sacile and Treviso - both historic towns with an attractive café conscience – we were likely cast as touring tramps, with ice cream round our mouths.

But for all our efforts, the hospitality served along our tour was generous: in Longarone, we were given speck and strudels for one climb up to Erto. We happened on Giovanni Pinarello, winner of the Giro’s black jersey (for coming last) in 1951, who emerged from the back of his flagship store in Treviso to shake our hands. “He’s here all the time” the sales assistant rubbed past us, his celebrity vitality appearing exasperating – but before us was a man devoted to people who’d have died coming last - how overjoyed we were! Perhaps we ought to have been looking for a new bike.

Creativity and perceptions of the demigod teacher.

In addition to ideas about fostering creativity in schools, such as postulated by the Thomas Tallis school webpages http://www.creativetallis.com/, where there is a strong focus on creative environments, understanding creativity, as well as developing creative practice (the pages themselves reflect the need to construct external and virtual creative environments such as student zones, video diaries, student and teacher web forums and blogs) - aside from this sideways-thinking, I ask: will a pupil attain a much greater level of creativity, perhaps in spite of an amenable learning environment, if their teacher is in their eyes a demigod?

Assuming for now that this does not mean a crush, but that this perception must also follow from the majority of the class; boys and girls, and that the teacher may be mysteriously gifted in the eyes of other teachers too. To attain this universal level of respect in the school may be due to any combination of disinterestedness, expertise, wit, incisive observation, persuasive feedback, acute, peaceable humour, as well as tact, and tactile manipulation of the natural gullibility of pupils - culminating in a demigod status. This latter point allowing for the accidental case, where the teacher has attained a faux-demigod affection, but has nevertheless crafted this into a trustful, healthy, happy classroom…which is what matters.

If a teacher is perceived to be a demigod, what can’t be taught?

Let’s start with types of learning, starting with the most liberal and moving steadfastly to the most conservative.

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  Pupil-lead learning (when pupils take on the role of teacher). Since demigod teachers can’t be mimicked, pupils will nevertheless try to act up to their teacher’s expectations, as well as impress their peers. There are obvious pros and cons, but it must be better to assume the role of a demigod teacher than an uneducated footballer.
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  Learning to learn: natural academic insights that make academic thinking irresistible are the property of the teacher-god, whose enthusiasm as opposed to wincing reuse of university notes for revision, draws the pupils into their world of independent thinking: from which creativity floweth. Con: pupils become smug.
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  Learning/Acquiring skills: when pupils witness the skills of their teachers first hand, they see not dry, educational targets, but living, juicy, disinterested annexes of a person's success – ‘suave’ is a more down to earth term for ‘grace’ (incidentally one of Plato’s essential characteristics for a philosopher).
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  Learning the classics: essentially the god-teacher knows the classics or at least values the universal truths within, but moreover relishes pupils unearthing them as ancient models of creativity, that stand in for the teacher's modelling and instruction. Likewise, pupils see their teacher-god as embodying universal experience and truth, and consume the classics willingly.
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  Teacher-to-pupil (copying from the board): handwriting aside, the freedom of scrawling on a white board, is also a platform for creative self-awareness and possibly irony for the god-teacher. So instead of: “Learning Objective", it might be: “You just need to know this”. How can pupils forget good times with the white board?

Obviously being seen as teacher demi-god is a solution to many of the debates and problems in education. Yet many of us can't simply attain to it. Falling short, we are like those who shadow the lives of celebrities, with the same embarrassing consequences.