Don’t Yank the Sage From His Stage. Postmodern teaching fads are compromising student learning.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | August 8, 2025 | David C. Phillips

[GingisK]

We have a ringside seat for civilization collapse.

[Dr. Franklin]

The idiots of modern education don’t care if the students actually learn anything. Furthermore, they permit complaints from those who don’t want to learn to frustrate the learning of the students who do. The “experts” with the education degrees are largely educated idiots.

[FreedomPoster]

There is huge variation in quality of the sage on the stage. Go watch a few Richard Feynman Physics lectures for an example of what a high quality teacher looks like.

What is needed is a reversal of the classroom / homework schema.

For homework, the student watches high quality lectures a la Feynman.

In class, you have a lesser sage able to answer questions about the material and help students through the rough parts / areas where the student is having trouble.

[TexasGator]

What you describe is exactly what the author says is wrong.

[FreedomPoster]

And I am disagreeing with the author. I see a need for the live SME, just playing a different role than currently.

Realize that I am coming at this from a strong STEM background. Not everybody is cut out for that, and not everybody who is an SME is cut out for deliver their knowledge via a lecture.

[Albion Wilde]

More Summerhill School nonsense, where elementary children decide what they will do or learn or not learn in school all day because "democracy."

[discostu]

Do the students actually listen? I think a lot of it depends on the subject matter too. I certainly wouldn’t want my mechanic to learn entirely via lecture, guide on the side is definitely the way to teach a lot of stuff. The problem is, as always, trying to go one size fits all, it’s a great Zappa album but a crappy way to do pretty much everything.

[econjack]

This is a crock of crap. I have 40+ years of university teaching at both the undergrad and grad level. The "sage on the stage" works fine...if done correctly. Example: in 1995, poverty was defined as $15,500/yr or less for a family of 4. I told my students I could end poverty overnight. They asked how. I told them: "Get all the people who make less than $15,500/yr, line them up, and shoot them." Their eyes went as big a pie plates. After they calmed down, we talked about stock versus flow variables and how poverty is measured at a point in time, not over time. So, a burger-flipping teenager who is poor today could be a millionaire 20 years from now, but we set economic policy based on stock measures when the solution demands flow measures.

We went on to have a good discussion about income distribution and policies. Thinking that students can self-direct a classroom is stupid and just an extension of the participation trophy mentality that is designed to fool students that they are learning something via a classroom free-for-all. You need teachers who draws students into the conversation, not put them in charge of it.

[LastDayz]

What’s even better is on-line learning sourced from Europe to teach the basics of the trades. /s

[Larry Lucido]

not a “sage on the stage” but a “guide on the side.”

Does everything have to rhyme all the time? Guess it’s the only way to glean what you mean.

[TexasGator]

“For homework, the student watches high quality lectures a la Feynman.”

I am not impressed with his lecture videos. Outdated and of poor quality. His presentation is distracting obscure and reeks of entertainment rather than knowledge transfer.

If a college put me on your course of study I would transfer.

Also, a student needs to learn by getting their hands dirty by actually working problems to their solutions, not by circle-jerking with a guide.

[dfwgator]

[Languager]

University prof here with decades of experience. Sage on a stage works great in my classroom. No tech except chalk and a blackboard, or occasionally if I can’t find a new room, a marker and eraserboard.

[TexasGator]

“This is a crock of crap. I have 40+ years of university teaching at both the undergrad and grad level. The “sage on the stage” works fine...if done correctly.”

I don’t understand why you think “Don’t Yank the Sage From His Stage” is a crock of crap.

[econjack]

No, I was arguing against pulling the sage. He stated that some argue that the sage is no longer needed, which is what I was arguing against.

[econjack]

I think we’re from the same school...

[dfwgator]

Are there any sages left?

[econjack]

Perhaps the most under-utilized vocational training institution in the US is the military. I had a HS friend who went into the military when I went into college. He ended up fixing jet engines. He got out after 8 years and probably made twice what I did as university professor for the rest of his life. So many teens would be better off today if they had opted for the military after HS graduation.

[TexasGator]

“No, I was arguing against pulling the sage. He stated that some argue that the sage is no longer needed, which is what I was arguing against.”

Your “This” referred back to the article which supported the sage an th sage. He, the author, was NOT arguing that the sage is no longer needed, as you imply.