ABSTRACT
In their recent article, “ ‘Trust Me, I Do not Know What I Am Talking About!’ The Voice of the Teacher beyond the Oath and Blasphemy,” Igor Jasinski and Tyson E. Lewis present a notion of the teacher as one who ‘speaks silence.’ Drawing on the work of Agamben, and as a continuation or elaboration of the work of Masschelein and Simons, Jasinski and Lewis analyse how the voice of the teacher has historically had the function of an oath. This concept is drawn from Agamben’s analysis of how truth is re-manifested and sustained in and through language (Jasinski & Lewis, 2016, p. 2), thus underpinning and maintaining the established cultural and societal order. In what they coin the ‘performative act of the teacher’s voice,’ the truth is re-presented by the teacher’s voice in the traditional institution of the school, and the student is tasked with learning and remembering the voice (truth) of the teacher. Against this traditional understanding of teaching as ‘truth speaking’ they offer the notion of speaking silence:
The teacher swears and curses, i.e. says “this is the truth, learn it and you will be saved (blessing)” and “this is the truth, and if you don’t learn it, you’re in trouble (curse).” Both options are present in the performative act of the teacher’s voice … Here we suggest one alternative is to theorize the relation between teaching and silence, or, at least, the silence of the voice of the teacher. By silence we do not mean lack of language, but rather language as true or false, blessing or perjury, oath or blasphemy. Such speech, be it actual silence or babble (speech without truth-conditions) is itself profane in that it demonstrates the free use of language (released from the sacred realm). The profane speech of the teacher, in turn, carves out a hollow in the language of the classroom where students (by speaking after the teacher) can experience a pure language, the potentiality to speak. In sum, when the teacher speaks silence, she whispers: “Speak after me, I do not know what I am talking about!”
(Jasinski & Lewis, 2016, p. 5) The oath through the voice of the teacher becomes a curse in that it re-manifests and re-enforces the truth and makes it inescapable for the students. Only if you 149speak after me will you be saved. If you do not learn and remember what my voice ‘swears,’ you will be in trouble. In order to escape the curse of speaking, the teacher must refrain from speaking with the voices of blessings and curses, and the way to do this is to speak silence, to speak as if one did not know the truth; I do not know what I am talking about.