ABSTRACT
Teaching in an extra-moral sense is an act of refusing to surrender to the stultifying effect of those championing values in the name of the "customary metaphors"; God, country, diversity, tolerance, and so on. Unlike the articulation of some static claim to status and meaning, teaching in an extra-moral sense is dynamic and relational; its expression demands and initiates movement, transgression, even of its own status and meaning. Teaching in an extra-moral sense is possible when one is willing to risk embarrassment, resentment, exhaustion, isolation, among other personal and professional consequences. To assert that teaching in an extra-moral sense is not a method but is itself a value is not intended to artificially or otherwise complicate and confuse matters. Teaching in an extra-moral sense is a breaking away from the "fixed conventions" that define and, in turn, restrict the freedom that ought to characterize teaching and education.
