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Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Mon 1/24/2005 4:11 AM
Random Thought: What Does It Takes To Be A Teacher: An Interview, III
Well, that student who had done a telephone interview with me a few months
ago, sent me what he says is the last of the transcripts of our
conversation. I guess I said a lot more than I imagined. I thought I'd
share some of the pertinent portions of this transcript with you. He began:
".....What do you think, then, are the qualities of a teacher that
guarantee success?"
"There are none."
"None?"
"I don't have any guarantees, or magic incantations, or sure-fire tricks.
The problem is that too many people think there are, that there are some
quick and easy things you can do to guarantee success. The only guarantee I
have is that there are no guarantees. There are characteristics that give
the teacher a better chance of being successful, but no guarantees. But
first, before I give those characteristics to you, what do you mean by
success? That is, when is a teacher successful?"
"Well, my professor says it's the achievement of subject mastery by the
student."
"You know in graduate school we once spent two back-to-back semesters in
seminars--two semesters--studying one year--one year--1789, in the French
Revolution. And, we didn't even scratch the surface. Subject mastery?
With all due respect to your professor, he's falling back on cliché. He
chasing a rainbow without a pot of gold at the end. And, if you did come
upon a pot of gold, it would be fool's gold....."
"Well, I mean, then, wouldn't you say we could determine success in terms
of GPA, honors, awards, and so on?"
"Well, you're assuming that these are proper indicators of long-term
learning as opposed to short term grade-getting or score-making as the
bean-counters would have you believe. Getting a grade or GPA is far
different from being instilled with a life-long love of learning. But,
that's for another interview. Let's not get into that. I'll say this. The
successful teacher creates a seratonin rush around him or her. Do you know
what I mean by that?"
"No."
"The successful teacher has to diminish anxiety, apathy, fear, feelings of
worthlessness, depression. The successful teacher gets others to curl lips,
to show teeth, to brighten eyes, to light up faces. I include in my meaning
of "success" a reaching out to a student, touching that student, and
altering his or her life. In one sentence: successful teaching is helping
someone to start transforming themselves, to help them help themselves
become the person they are capable of becoming. Do that and you've changed
the world and altered the future. Don't do that and you're wasting your
time. So, in no particular order, here they are the qualities you asked for
that I would list. Actually, they're more criteria of what I'll call
"reflective hows" than characteristics:
1. how empathetic you are?
2. how much of your authority is based on influence rather than on
position?
3. how much of a deep sense of meaning and purpose is in your teaching?
4. how much you have reflected upon and articulated your philosophy of
education?
5. how much value are you to each student?
6. how much to help each student; how much love you can inspire?
7. how much do you continue to grow and develop?
8. how much you give to those who are in need the most?
9. how much do you teach outside and beyond yourself?
10. how much beauty you can see and appreciate in both yourself and each
student?
11. how much beauty you can help a student see and appreciate in both
him/herself and others?
12. how much you serve and give?
13. how much true and lasting value you create?
14. how much do you so deeply believe in what you're doing that you accept
inherent risks of pushing the envelope?
15. how much do you follow after others and how much do you lead yourself?
16. how much you care about each student?
17. how much of a sense of otherness you possess and exercise?
18. how much you look at your potential and stretch yourself into everything
you can become?
19. how much you help each student look at his or her potential and stretch
him/herself into everything he or she can become?
20. how much a positive difference you make in each student's life?
21. how much you're sensitive to how what you say, feel and do effects each
student?"
"....That's a hard 'how much' list of questions to think about..."
"Sure it is. That's why it's important. You learn from hard, not from
easy. You may crave the unchallenging easy and the risk-free familiar and
the comfortable routine, but you grow from the hard and unfamiliar and
unique. Hard means you're stretching and reaching beyond yourself. Hard
means entering new and unknown worlds and thereby expanding your world. Hard
means to admit to your weaknesses and give it all you've got to transform
them into strengths. Hard means turning a weakness into a strength. Hard
means looking as foolish and wobbling and falling down as when you first
learn to ski, skate, or ride a bicycle. I've found that true success is not
being better than someone else; it is being better than you used to be--in
everyway."
".... but aren't you just asking someone to change what he does?"
"No, it's more than that. I'm more than suggesting you have to change who
you are. I am saying that the most successful teachers are not the ones who
know the most, or the ones who are most renown, or the ones who are the
smartest...."
"....But, what if you're not comfortable doing a lot of that or don't have
the time...."
"Everyone has the time, if they want to make the time. And, convenience
and comfort, and even safety, are not in the mix. Teaching, like life
itself, without risk is lifeless. Think about five things. First, your
respect for a student depends on how much respect, trust, and love you have
for yourself. Your respect for a student also depends on how much respect
you have for teaching. Whenever you judge a student, you're really judging
and revealing yourself. Once you label a student as a 'don't belong,'
you've imposed limits on, if not negated, both that student and yourself.
Judging a student doesn't make him or her who he or she is, but it does
reveal who you are. What does not live in you cannot thrive in your
classes. Second, would your professor accept from you that statement,
'It's hard' or 'I'm not comfortable doing that' or 'I didn't have the time'
as a reason not to do an assignment?"
"Probably not. No."
"Then, what's the grounds for the professor accepting it from himself?
That is, on one hand how can the teacher ask a student to push and stretch
and on the other hand accept not pushing and stretching himself? How can a
teacher demand a student strive for his or her unique potential if the
teacher doesn't do it himself. A teacher cannot give or demand what the
teacher doesn't have to give or demand of himself. It would be a gross
violation of a kind of golden rule: you'd be demanding of others what you
won't demand of yourself. Third, if you learn to enjoy a challenge, if you
learn to enjoy adventure, what you do and where you are will be more
enjoyable. I'm not sure you can improve what you're doing if you really
don't enjoy doing it. Sure, you can find reasons to be miserable, but
miserable isn't the best material with which to build things. You'll wind
up with a miserable structure or put your energy into other things that you
do enjoy doing like research and publication. Enjoying a challenge I have
found puts you in a more positive position and a better frame of mind to do
something positive and see the value you're able to help create. Fourth,
the more genuine you feel for each student, the more blessed your teaching
will be, had then you'll find real, lasting success and fulfillment and joy
flowing into the classroom. If you think and act beyond yourself, the sky's
the limit for success. Fifth, it is a simple truth that every thing you do
now that feels comfortable, every place where you are now that feels secure,
was once unknown, uncomfortable, challenging, threatening, and intimidating
to you. What was once took a lot of effort is now more effortless. What wa
s once strange is now familiar. What once you could not do you're competent
at doing. What once you were unsure about you're now confident about. What
does that say? It says there are always more things you can do, higher
levels you can reach, farther places you can go, more you can reach out for
and touch. Push and stretch yourself and you'll discover something truly
empowering: your unimagined, unique potential and you'll help each student
do likewise. Now, that is success! Is this enough....."
"......yes, thanks...."
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