"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up." Jesse Louis Jackson (1941- )
It is tempting for teachers to look down on students who behave or perform academically in ways that don't measure up to expectations. Worse still, it is tempting to speak disparagingly to or of such students. We put them down when we should be building them up. We dismiss them when we should be the wind beneath their wings. We have no choice in this matter. As teaching professionals we have an obligation to do whatever is necessary to help our students advance in wisdom and grace. The extent to which we devote ourselves to this end is the measure of our professionalism and the ultimate reward for our labors in the field of education.
"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind." Henry James (1843-1916)
This brings to mind the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832), who said: "Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together." Witness, too, the words of
Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965): "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. " These words may read like a platitude, but
the fact is that our daily lives are marked with many kindnesses, our own as
much as those of others, and every act of kindness, no matter how small, is a gift to the world, making it a more graceful, more beautiful, more peaceful place.
"The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves." P.D. James
Sometimes you have to step out on a limb to do what you believe is in the best interests of your students. You may alienate colleagues who resent the threat you may pose to them through your desire to provide the best possible learning experience for your students. Worse still you may alienate an administration which prefers the comfort of the status quo. My advice: life is too short to compromise on your convictions. You might be ridiculed by your peers, but at least you'll earn the respect of your students, and they're what education is all about.
"When you are competent, and you live in an age of incompetence, it makes you appear extraordinary." Billy Joel
Billy Joel is under no illusions about his abilities as a musician. He knows a lot of people think he's good. But in his eyes he's merely competent because he knows what qualifies as excellence in his business. Perhaps we think we're good teachers, but we should beware of being complacent. No matter how good we think we are, we can always be better, and this awareness should drive us to pursue excellence till the day we die.
"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
All the beginning teachers I've ever asked have told me that they want to be teachers because they love working with children. This is a pretty good indication that most every teacher has a good and generous heart. We want to help our students learn; we get excited when they do. We make this our goal day after day, year after year, with successive generations of students, until our careers come to a close. Along the way, are there students we remember with especial fondness? Yes. Are there students we remember with a grimace because we weren't fond of them at all? Yes. Fortunately, fondness is not the measure of how good a job a teacher has done. As Samuel Johnson observes, we can control our feelings even though we don't have a lot of control over how we feel. We may not be fond of this or that student yet still be kind to them. Indeed, good teachers will be especially kind to those children they find most difficult to like, reacting against a natural feeling of antipathy because it's the right thing to do.
"If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (1875-1961)
A humbling thought... We teachers sometimes assume a God-like role, wanting to mold our students in our own image and likeness. Often we do so unconsciously, perhaps inevitably using our self-image as a benchmark for our expectations. Jung reminds us to be objective in our appraisal and assessment of our students' abilities and potential. We should recognize the unique spirit that lies within each individual child. We should nurture that unique spirit, and allow it the freedom to flourish and grow.
"It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy." Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
I find it difficult to believe in a God who would want us to be unhappy. But we cannot be happy all the time. If we were we would probably become satiated, complacent, unappreciative, maybe even bored. As Kant suggests, we are responsible for our own happiness and must do what is necessary to find it and hold onto it. This is a peculiarly subjective, and thus sometimes lonely, pursuit because what is happiness for one may be misery for another.
"The greatest tragedy in life is people who have sight, but no vision." Helen Keller (1882-1968)
Where are we going in K-12 education? Is the wind of change blowing through the corridors of our Elementary and Secondary schools? Is technology enabling teachers to teach, and students to learn, in different ways? Can we any longer afford to teach in the old-fashioned, regimented way when the world all around us is moving away from people-intensive automation to robot-controlled automation? Tomorrow's workers must have strong, independent, creative, higher-order thinking skills--all of them, not just the privileged few. So we need teachers and administrators with the vision to recognize the individual in their classrooms and direct education towards the goal of preparing each unique individual child to take his or her place in tomorrow's world.
"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I CAN DO." Helen Keller (1882-1968)
Sometimes we teachers feel overwhelmed by the sheer scope of what we know needs to be done to achieve the best outcomes for our students. The temptation is always there to complain or, worse still, to give up trying. Complaining, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. Someone has to stick up for the students; they have little or no power on their own. The best teachers thus take on the role of advocate and work diligently to ensure that their students have optimal conditions for learning. These teachers do what they can and never, ever, give up trying.
"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
Good teachers love their job and want to be the best teacher they can be. That's a great challenge because the "painstaking excellence" required can never be fully achieved. Thus good teachers just get better and better.
"The existence of the leader who is wise is barely known to those he leads." Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (570?-490? BCE)
Students teaching students is the best way for everyone to learn. The teacher's role should be to so prepare the environment that learning can take place with minimal interference from the teacher. This, of course, is pure Montessorian education philosophy. In a way, it parallels Dewey's "discovery" approach. It's also very Constructivist. In other words, it's nothing new.
It is difficult to practice a pure Montessorian approach in which the teacher does literally nothing except observe the students as they interact with the learning materials that have been prepared. This, for me, is a dream I would love to live out; but so far it has remained a dream. For 37 years, however, I have striven to stay out of the way as much as possible while my students learn. I've devised all kinds of strategies to this end, which would take a book to describe in any meaningful detail, so I won't bore you with them now (*phew!*).
All I will say is that I believe education is a balancing act between teaching and learning. Too much teaching can take away from opportunities for students to learn. Too little teaching can leave the students befuddled and confused. The younger the students, the more they need the teacher as guide, planning carefully to provide the students with learning opportunities that will help them acquire prescribed intellectual skills.
This is easier said than done. It is, however, easier to do if we make our students collaborators with us in the process of teaching and learning which, in a way, is exactly what Lao Tzu recommends.
"To hold and fill to overflowing is not as good as to stop in time. Sharpen a knife-edge to its very sharpest, and the edge will not last long." Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (570?-490? BCE)
Teaching to the test... Throwaway knowledge... How often have teachers complained about an education system that is designed as though the students were widgets on an assembly line? Fill the kids with knowledge, test 'em on it, make sure they pass, move 'em on. We all recognize that the knowledge gained by this method is of short duration, that's when it is acquired at all. As Loa-Tzu observes: "the edge will not last long." Learning that endures is acquired slowly over time, often inadvertently, often even serendipitously. A quality curriculum thus will allow for different rates of knowledge acquisition and individual learning preferences. It will be guided always by the overriding principle that ensures success for all, not simply the chosen, surviving few.
Promise
yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind;
to talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet;
to make all those you meet feel that there is something in them;
to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true;
to think only of the best, to work for the best, and expect only the best;
to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own;
to forget mistakes of the past, and press on to the greater achievements of the future;
to wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile;
to give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others;
to be too large to worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. Christian D. Larson
"Teaching is a lot of 'heart' work" Maria LaTour
This quote speaks for itself and should be a thought for the day for every student majoring in Education and preparing for a future as a teacher. Teaching well is hard work, and it also requires a big heart.
"The day I don't find romance in a loaf of bread, I'm gonna quit." Jack Lemmon's dad--a baker
The day I don't find romance in teaching and learning, I'm gonna quit, too!
"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Louis Pasteur put it another way: "Fortune favors the prepared mind." Lincoln's and Pasteur's words apply nicely to teachers who toil in the garden of education to promote the growth of young minds. We're most successful--and experience least hardship along the way--if we hone the tools of our trade by educating ourselves, planning quality lessons, and coming to class prepared to do the job we love.
"Sometimes we may learn more from a man's errors, than from his virtues." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Do you remember the most embarrassing thing you have ever done? Of course you do! Are you likely to do it again? Probably not. Children are often told not to do something, but they're curious and sometimes stubborn (myself included). So it's not unusual for them to do it anyway, and they learn the hard way. The good thing about this is that they learn their lesson so much better. If you touch a hot stove, you understand what hot is so much better than if someone just tells you. This is why active/interactive hands-on learning is so much better than passive instruction. Active learning gives students the opportunity to fail on their own and thus learn from experience. Sometimes we learn more from an experiment gone awry than if we had gotten the expected results. Failure is part of being human. We can't always be right. We must teach our students to look at failure as an opportunity, rather than as something to fear.
"A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
People of all ages are vulnerable to verbal abuse, but children most of all. There will be times when the challenge of working with children will stretch the patience of even the most experienced and placid of teachers. The word "Education" derives from the latin "e-ducere"-- to lead forward. Teachers are in a position of power. They are leaders in the pursuit of learning. They have to be on their guard to not allow, in the heat of the moment, the release of expressions of anger that may bruise the heart of a child entrusted to their care. Clear and consistent correction is one thing; mean-spirited, spiteful, unduly harsh verbal attacks are quite another, and should be avoided at all costs. Apart from anything else, such attacks provide children with the wrong model of how to deal with conflict and other problems in interpersonal relationships. Teachers, above all, thus have a professional responsibility to provide an environment for their students in which mutal respect nurtures and uplifts the sensitive soul.
© Bernard Poole, Donna Hendry, Rebecca Randall, Yvonne Singer, 1996-2005, All rights reserved / poole@pitt.edu, ysinger@worldnet.att.net / (814) 269-2923 / Revised September 30, 2008