Donald Hannon, Mr. Hannon to his students, was my only favorite high school teacher. I was attending the American Community School in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1965 when I took his course in Ideologies. This was a college level course, using the Socratic method. There were no textbooks. Student class notes, his lectures, and mimeographed essays he handed out were our textbooks.
The Socratic teaching method was used by Socrates of ancient Greece. He taught his students while walking along, lecturing and asking them questions. This form of teaching is also known as the dialogical method. Out of the exchange knowledge, and debates, critical thinking emerged.
Rather than a student reading from a textbook and accepting only what was on the page, then regurgitating what was there, the Socratic method encourages students to grasp ideas using their own thinking, while not accepting what they are receiving at faith value. Rather "truth" is arrived by taking several sources, analysing them, and then discerning what is “truth” and knowledge as can best be interpreted at the time. If new information and ideas come up later then the “truth” is adapted to the new situation.
An ideology is a “system of ideas and ideals, which form the basis of economic and political theory and policy” which together, guide how groups of people think and act the way they choose to live.
Capitalism, Democracy, Totalitarianism, Fascism, Nihilism, and Communism are among the most influential ideologies in the modern world. Depending which ideology one is guided by, as a group of citizens they can live under a democratic government, or communist regime or under rule of divine right kings. Some ideologies as decided by the people who choose to live under them. Others, like communism or fascism are imposed on them.
I remember we had about 12-14 students and we met every day of the school week. We set our desks in a semicircle facing Mr. Hannon’s desk and the blackboard. During each session Mr. Hannon introduced us to an ideology and the influential leaders that used them. He introduced us to them while giving brief lectures, while scribbling on
He passed out mimeographed papers (when the xerox machine was in its primitive stages), defining ideologies and the influential persons that used them for leading people or for subjugating them.
Capitalism was about acquiring wealth. Socialism was about citizens distributing wealth willingly for the better good. Communism was about taking wealth away by force from the people in order to create a utopian society. I really understood the communist system Mr. Hannon was talking about, as I had lived during through its early stages in revolutionary Cuba six years before.
Then, Mr. Hannon formed us into debating teams and without prior preparation would pose questions for debate, pro or con. It didn't matter which team "won" or "lost." There was no "right" nor "wrong." What mattered was that we mastered the material and knew how to argue the ideology's strengths and weaknesses, as well as to compare and contrast with the others.
There were no letter grades. We were graded on how involved we were in the discussions, and on our written assignments, without concern of giving the "right" answers.
Mr. Hannon's ideologies class is the most important learning experience that has carried me through academia including my graduate work. In fact, I used Mr. Hannon's teaching/learning methods to defend my Ph.D.
I graduated from A.C.S. in 1966. I never saw Mr. Hannon again. But I had a brief telephone conversation with them while visiting Buenos Aires in 2018, 52 years later. He was near 90, as he remembered me, speaking in a frail voice. I thanked him again, and how much he had influenced my life, my learning, and teaching.
He is my Mentor, my Socrates
Thank you Mr. Hannon
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