How To Be A Good Teacher (Part I)
If I were actually to answer the questions implicit in the title of this post, I would probably have to exhaust the server space and then point out that I hadn't given a definitive (let alone exhaustive, heh) answer. But the thing is that new, young, and/or probationary teachers have asked me this kind of question before, and I have tried my level best to answer it.
If I had to give a really short tutorial in teaching, I'd probably focus on a few points, all of which are almost equally important.
1. Respect your calling: You need to remember you're a teacher. You're someone who has to bias students in favour of wanting to learn, and show them how and where and why they should, can, or might want to do it. You are a communicator, a motivator, a coach; if you can't do these things, get out of the profession. If you can't create an environment for disciplined, informed and intelligent learning, then you have your task cut out for you. You must be competent, fair, and flexible where necessary. You are lighting lamps in the darkness, leading expeditions into the unknown; you are the shadow of a mighty rock within a burning land, and a stream of water in a desert.
2. Respect your students: You need to remember that you were sitting there once, and yet none of them is exactly (or sometimes even remotely) like what you used to be. Each student is special, has a biographical and biological context, has moods and emotions, has a style of reasoning, has a brain and a heart and all the diversity that the many years between being born and coming to your class can bring. Each one is a gem, but one that can be cut and polished, or that can be set uncut, or displayed or made useful in many different ways. One difference, though, is that these gems transmute and change themselves as well. They will reflect their surroundings, but they will also ennoble and illuminate their settings if treated right. They have their own nature; your job is to help them shine and only cut and reform if absolutely necessary.
3. Respect your subject: Know why your subject is different from other subjects, and what its 'secret agenda' really is. Know in what ways your subject is like some others, how it is linked, why it matters and is relevant in today's world and the world to come. Remember that all subjects and subject boundaries change with time; know the history of your subject and its cultural context. Understand why it can be boring in some places, and don't gloss over the difficult parts. Inculcate the habits of mind that are most important for your subject, while not neglecting other good habits; an aesthetic appreciation for science is often a valuable asset, for example.
4. Respect the context: Yes, this means the school, the hierarchy, the dominion and power (oops, got carried away there). All teachers work in a sociocultural context. Look out for socioeconomic factors, school culture, political underpinnings. Respecting these things doesn't necessarily mean you buy into them or participate in the kind of hierarchical games that such systems engender. It means you should appreciate the cost of participation as well as the cost of non-participation; you need to know how much latitude you have and how much that will affect your longitude. If you are going to be a rebel, just look around and count the cost. If you respect the context enough to want to reform it, that is going to take time, energy and capital (in allies, funds, and many other hidden forms).
All these are attitudes. You need to have these tendencies built in even before you start considering the technical aspects of being a teacher, a professional unlike any other kind. Teaching as a profession is the highest point of all professions because no other profession can exist, survive and propagate itself without it.
If I had to give a really short tutorial in teaching, I'd probably focus on a few points, all of which are almost equally important.
1. Respect your calling: You need to remember you're a teacher. You're someone who has to bias students in favour of wanting to learn, and show them how and where and why they should, can, or might want to do it. You are a communicator, a motivator, a coach; if you can't do these things, get out of the profession. If you can't create an environment for disciplined, informed and intelligent learning, then you have your task cut out for you. You must be competent, fair, and flexible where necessary. You are lighting lamps in the darkness, leading expeditions into the unknown; you are the shadow of a mighty rock within a burning land, and a stream of water in a desert.
2. Respect your students: You need to remember that you were sitting there once, and yet none of them is exactly (or sometimes even remotely) like what you used to be. Each student is special, has a biographical and biological context, has moods and emotions, has a style of reasoning, has a brain and a heart and all the diversity that the many years between being born and coming to your class can bring. Each one is a gem, but one that can be cut and polished, or that can be set uncut, or displayed or made useful in many different ways. One difference, though, is that these gems transmute and change themselves as well. They will reflect their surroundings, but they will also ennoble and illuminate their settings if treated right. They have their own nature; your job is to help them shine and only cut and reform if absolutely necessary.
3. Respect your subject: Know why your subject is different from other subjects, and what its 'secret agenda' really is. Know in what ways your subject is like some others, how it is linked, why it matters and is relevant in today's world and the world to come. Remember that all subjects and subject boundaries change with time; know the history of your subject and its cultural context. Understand why it can be boring in some places, and don't gloss over the difficult parts. Inculcate the habits of mind that are most important for your subject, while not neglecting other good habits; an aesthetic appreciation for science is often a valuable asset, for example.
4. Respect the context: Yes, this means the school, the hierarchy, the dominion and power (oops, got carried away there). All teachers work in a sociocultural context. Look out for socioeconomic factors, school culture, political underpinnings. Respecting these things doesn't necessarily mean you buy into them or participate in the kind of hierarchical games that such systems engender. It means you should appreciate the cost of participation as well as the cost of non-participation; you need to know how much latitude you have and how much that will affect your longitude. If you are going to be a rebel, just look around and count the cost. If you respect the context enough to want to reform it, that is going to take time, energy and capital (in allies, funds, and many other hidden forms).
All these are attitudes. You need to have these tendencies built in even before you start considering the technical aspects of being a teacher, a professional unlike any other kind. Teaching as a profession is the highest point of all professions because no other profession can exist, survive and propagate itself without it.
etched with acid at 9:59:00 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home