What was the magic trick? The secret? The ace
up my sleeve? We will get to that shortly but first, gather around, huddle up,
it’s halftime and it’s time to have a serious gut check.
Ah, I can see the doubters out there—the
teachers for whom the burdens of teaching have set you into a cynical spiral of
despair. You’re down, and it’s only the half way point of the year. Your
classroom seems like “Groundhog Day” (the movie) in which things that drag you
down are repeated over and over.
Let’s make a list: unruly kids; way too many of
them; lack of supplies; tepid admin support; parents who either don’t care, don’t
want to know what’s wrong with their children—or worse, they ask you what to do!
Have I touched on some of your problems? I bet
I have. But let’s not forget these mind numbing fumbles: the pay check is
dismal at best; the curriculum you are told
to teach is boring, not just to the kids but to you, as well. One more thing.
You have no social life, no money for one, and no idea how to get out of this
funk.
Is that what’s ailing you? Yes, I know. I just
caused you to cry. “Are you crying? Are you crying? There’s no crying”… in
teaching. (Okay, you can cry a little: but there is no crying in baseball). Now
wipe away the tears, and as they say “Huddle up and listen.”
What makes a great teacher? I’ll tell you what.
Endurance. Curiosity. Compassion. Selflessness. Humor. A solid work ethic. And
the most important element—faith that
you have something to offer those kids every single day. Ask yourself if that
is what you are out there playing for? Are those qualities the ones you value,
not just as a teacher, but are those the qualities you are teaching kids?
That’s right. I just identified the real ‘Lesson
Plans.’ You don’t teach to a test. You
are the test. You set the goal. You emulate the skills that you want them to begin to value and someday
maybe master.
Let me add one important quality that I
implied: patience. Malcolm Gladwell
(if you don’t know who he is, then you are not paying attention to the way we
learn) argues it takes 10,000 hours of
productive practice to master anything; a musical instrument, a sports game,
the act of public speaking, and on and on. So, for all you young guns out there
teaching: patience, endurance. It’s going to take a while to learn the art that
is teaching. Each year is a marathon, and summer is when you collapse at the
finish line (or try to, if you’ve saved enough money…more on that later).
So what to do? Teach them to sing. To dance. To
listen. To create with their hands or finger tips. Whatever you do—you do it first and preferably with them.
Show them that it’s doable. Heck, you were once a student and you did it. They
can, too.
I found lots of teachers who felt they hated
what they were teaching. Take WWI, for example. Boring? Really? The gas used in
that war is much like what Assad used on his Syrian people. It’s what Saddam
Hussein used on the Kurdish citizens to keep control. It’s the weapon of choice
for dictators. Ask the kids what we, as Americans, should do about it? And how
different is that, really, when it comes to knowingly allowing drinking water
in Flint, Michigan to be poisoned with lead? Get them pissed off. Remember, the
sins of the past will repeat if you, their
teacher, do not help your students to learn from the mistakes of our elders.
That’s your job. Your job is to get them to rise up. To ascend to a high level of thinking,
of competence, of humanity. That is so not
boring. And if you are not flying out of this huddle fired up to make a
difference, then you may not belong in this arena. 50% of teachers can’t cut it
and quit after less than five years. But if you have been reading this far into
my pep talk, I’m betting you are not a quitter. I’m betting that you give a
damn about most, if not all, of your kids.
I know the pay sucks. But stick together.
Unions made the difference for me. We took pay cuts for medical coverage to
kick in after we retired until 65. That was very ‘Union’ smart. We had to save for retirement, and those
pensions that teachers have are golden—just ask folks in the private sector
about that. You are a professional, so keep fighting for that profession. Those
who can’t teach often don’t have the patience, the selflessness, the vision of
a bigger picture, the persistence to get something right.
They may have more
money, but let me tell you, the Beatles got it right, “Money can’t buy you
love.”
And when this season is over, when the
scoreboard says you have won more than you lost, when the kids start meandering
out of your classroom—that’s when you will notice that ‘Thank You’ note left on
your desk that reads “You don’t know how much it meant to me when you ran out to the parking lot to ask me
if I was ‘okay’. It mattered a lot.”
So, the season really begins anew.
To quote John Keating, “What will your verse
be?”*
(If you don’t know who he is…for shame. Look
him up. Oh, one more thing, ask a wonderful, retired teacher to come back and
share a lesson to your kids. Those folks still got it…just ask, me
www.robertpacilio.net
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