I read a book by Parker Palmer years ago. As eloquent and meaningful as the book was to read, it is the title that still grips me. The Courage to Teach. Palmer does not title his book The Courage to Engage the Class in Cooperative Learning or The Courage to Use Formative Assessments or The Courage to Meet AYP. No, Palmer's title is much less specific. The Courage to Teach.
Sometimes, I find myself so caught up in trends and terms and acronyms that I have to take a step back, move the terminology aside, and find my purpose again - to teach. And not just to teach my class, but a classroom of individuals. And not just to teach using one particular method or another, but using whatever method necessary.
Over the past decade or so, rigor, relevance, and relationship have been touted as the new three Rs of education. In my experiences, relationship is the most important of the three.
Without a relationship, a teacher is little more than a presenter of material, laying the knowledge out there, disconnected from the learner. By building a relationship with a student, the learning becomes a joint effort. Through this relationship, a teacher has more at stake. The successes become joint successes, but the failures become joint failures as well. Like Palmer said, it takes courage to teach.
I imagine our ancestors, before the advent of mass education, and I picture a world where wise men and women would take their children and pass down the knowledge and skills of the village. Our knowledge base may have grown to be more vast and sophisticated, and our need for structure and efficiency more important, but we cannot forget that learning has always been personal. It may seem like our mass education system was built on the assembly line model, but it is imperative to realize that our students are not identical pieces of steel. An effective teacher will meet the student on his or her level, where the goal for the teacher and student is the same.
I believe that teachers have a unique opportunity to impact every one of their students. I want to be the kind of teacher who does so.
But I know it will take the courage to teach.
(Originally published @www.teachingforlearning.org on July 3, 2011)
Sometimes, I find myself so caught up in trends and terms and acronyms that I have to take a step back, move the terminology aside, and find my purpose again - to teach. And not just to teach my class, but a classroom of individuals. And not just to teach using one particular method or another, but using whatever method necessary.
Over the past decade or so, rigor, relevance, and relationship have been touted as the new three Rs of education. In my experiences, relationship is the most important of the three.
Without a relationship, a teacher is little more than a presenter of material, laying the knowledge out there, disconnected from the learner. By building a relationship with a student, the learning becomes a joint effort. Through this relationship, a teacher has more at stake. The successes become joint successes, but the failures become joint failures as well. Like Palmer said, it takes courage to teach.
I imagine our ancestors, before the advent of mass education, and I picture a world where wise men and women would take their children and pass down the knowledge and skills of the village. Our knowledge base may have grown to be more vast and sophisticated, and our need for structure and efficiency more important, but we cannot forget that learning has always been personal. It may seem like our mass education system was built on the assembly line model, but it is imperative to realize that our students are not identical pieces of steel. An effective teacher will meet the student on his or her level, where the goal for the teacher and student is the same.
I believe that teachers have a unique opportunity to impact every one of their students. I want to be the kind of teacher who does so.
But I know it will take the courage to teach.
(Originally published @www.teachingforlearning.org on July 3, 2011)