Nowhere is this more apparent than with seven and eight year olds and in public education. Mrs. Venable, Mrs. Venable, Mrs. Venable, Teacher, Teacher, Teacher they rapidly say my name in succession feeling an urgent need to tell me something . . . . something that usually can wait or something that does not need to be said aloud (aka tattling on a neighbor and causing more hurt feelings), or something that just randomly popped into their head. Sometimes the something is relevant, but at the moment, it is not necessary.
Recently, I had one of those light bulb moments in the middle of teaching and feeling exasperated at the ten millionth time I heard my name . . . . it went something like this . . .
You know, I love my name and I love being a teacher. But when you say my name so many times, I start to hate it. It’s not special anymore. So I need you to raise your hand and know that it won’t be too long and I will come and help you out.
So today when the little boy was exaggeratedly coughing and lamenting loudly how he needed water, I pulled him aside and said, I know you need water. I need you to trust that I’m going to take care of you and let you get water.
What it boiled down to was trust – they don’t trust they won’t forget what they need aka want to say. They don’t trust that I will take care of them. They definitely don’t trust each other.
This problem only gets exacerbated when teachers while trying to build trust with students are rushed and feel the urgency of whatever millionth mandate they’ve received from their school or district or state or worse yet country. All the while, they might be in a inner city classroom with students who have often lost the ability to wonder – aka to think, to imagine, to learn, and to grown. But teachers are not allowed to spark the wonder because they are too busy with everything that someone else is telling them they must do. Someone else who is not in their classroom and does not personally know their child.
Purportedly, the United States is falling behind other nations in test scores. There is an achievement gap between lower and upper classes, black and white, English Speaking and Other Language Learners. So we get formulas and math solutions to fix a problem that is not mathematical in nature. And it’s urgent and it must be done right now . . . . .
What if we trained teachers in how to build rapport and community? What if trained teachers in acting and improvisation? What if every teacher was required to spend so many hours researching and writing papers every year? What if we had a 200 day work year but only 160 days with students. 40 days to research and become the best us we want to be. 40 days to reflect on what went well and what went wrong? Or forty hours to teach and one hour to reflect and make weekly reflection mandatory?
We aren’t allowed to do that which we are requiring of our students. We are not allowed to be 21st century learners – the four Cs of the common core – Creative Thinking, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication.
The very essence and core of what we are desiring our students to be is being denied to teachers. So instead of being lifelong learners – reflecting, growing, always seeking to get better – to be a professional educator / learner, we are wearing them out.
I am thankful for my current role in a 2nd and 3rd Special Education Classroom. It is expected that yes while I will cover the standards, it will be at my pace and via my best determination to modify the content for my students. So we take three recesses on top of the school mandated recess. We do a lot of learning that looks like we’re playing games. We get on the computers. We laugh and get loud. We get quiet and serious. We greet each other with a handshake, a smile, and a good morning every day.
And as one student told me yesterday – our brains hurt by the end of the day! So Fridays are full of celebrations and fun times for all the hard work.
I’m not done growing and becoming and learning just like my students. So let’s squash the tyranny of the urgent and let learning happen starting with our teachers.
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