Being Yourself in the Classroom

Somebody said good teaching is one quarter preparation and three quarters drama. I have to reluctantly agree with this statement. I don’t aim to entertain my classes, but there is that element of performance. I always draw the parallel of singing a solo in church to teaching. It isn’t quite a performance, it should be an act of worship, you’re not up there to put on a show, BUT; there is that element of theatre. As a teacher you have to engage the student, capture their attention, too often I have found myself just demanding it. I try to use visuals (my bad drawings, the kids like a chance to laugh) and I employ a variety of technologies and media. I always say that I use the technology as opposed to depend upon it. I hope that I make use of the dramatic aspects of the media technologies. I’m sure a satellite photo on a big screen TV is superior to my best chalkboard sketch of a hurricane.

Somebody said good teaching is one quarter preparation and three quarters drama.

As a small boy I would go with my Dad to the high school where he taught before I would wander off to my elementary school next door. I remember getting to know these people as people first and then a few years later as my teachers. I was a little surprised that they seemed to be different as teachers. I was more surprised to hear the impressions they made on my classmates. The things that my peers would say about these people that I knew. You would think that this insight I had as a child would have given me such a heads up as a young teacher. Nope. I put a lot of effort into teaching but I ‘m pretty sure I was brutal. I’m pretty sure I was not myself in the classroom. What I have learned is that you pretty much cannot entirely be yourself in the classroom, there are many aspects of your personalities, beliefs, opinions etc. that teachers need to keep in check.

The person I want to be, in and out of the classroom, is the decent helping Christian sort who wants to follow the golden rule. I’m not saying I’m a complete hypocrite, but the responsibilities of classroom management or hallway supervision don’t always jive with the compassion that I would like to show or even should show! Sometimes the “professional” thing to do is to demonstrate some understanding, sometimes however the thing to do is to give a little heck. Too often I find that kids today are needing more and more “motivation” (loosely translated as lighting a fire under their rear end). Before you stop reading this is not going to degenerate into a geezer rant about “when I was your age ….” Some kids today are fantastic! I continually see super teens in my school, at my church etc. I was nowhere nearly that mature or together as some of these kids are now. I am concerned that the “together kids” are becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the general population.

I try to be as Christian as I can in my dealings with the children at school but I’m sure an outside observer would not connect me with the Christ who chastised the disciples and said with open arms “let the children come to me.” Maybe those observers would more quickly link me with the Jesus who overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple. Good news for me is, he’s the same guy! This doesn’t give a carte blanche for table tossing. It does let us know that sometimes the compassionate thing to do may not be interpreted as compassionate at first glance. Sometimes it takes a while.

My Dad could be quite the table tosser when he was a teacher. He was actually in charge of the tables as he was the “principal in charge of vice.” About 20 years after leaving high school I ran into a guy that was in high school with me. He had been a bit of a hard case in school and Dad had tried to teach him math with little success. In reflecting on his time in school with my Dad it had become clear to him what Dad had been trying to do. (I’ve been lucky enough to have run in to several of my Dad’s former students and heard several nice stories of how he made a difference.)

“teach the children as you would have your own children taught.”

The golden rule took on a new meaning for me when I sent my firstborn to school. My new golden rule became: “teach the children as you would have your own children taught.” You may think this meant I completely took a kid gloves approach, not necessarily! Sometimes it meant the exact opposite. My kids are great but sometimes they are going to talk too much in class, forget their homework etc. When this happens I’m counting on my kid’s teachers to follow my new golden rule.

More to follow…