Great teachers do some very simple things. They plan well but teach even better. They are like actors on a stage, painting the canvasses of our future generations. They inspire and motivate. Most of all, they follow Oprah Winfrey's number one creed: "What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what. "
Teaching---the Great Art
Yes, teaching great requires skill, but more importantly, teaching great requires passion. As a teacher, you cannot expect to get passion out of your students if you fail to put any passion or enthusiasm into what you teach. No matter the subject: whether you are selling history, algebra, or English composition, you will get a tepid reaction every time, if you teach without a spirit of joy.
No question that teaching is a difficult profession. When I look back on my years teaching at the secondary level, I recall long days of multiple demands, endless meetings, and administrative paperwork enough for the most bureaucratic of bureaucracies. Because at the time I was also working extensively in an after-school tutoring program, I was so exhausted most of the time that I had little or no energy left to inject enthusiasm into my lessons. This was unfortunate because when I did have that extra burst of energy---and God only knows where it came from given the hours I was working---my classes had that extra zest and I received my most satisfying reward from teaching: student responsiveness.
Oprah's Creed
As a teacher you will most definitely get out of the profession exactly what you put into it. If you expect to coast for twenty years or so until you can check out and get your pension, then think of another profession. From this perspective, you as a teacher are putting in the minimum to get out the maximum benefit available to you personally. This is in clear violation of the creed, and could be one of the many factors why education is on the decline in America.
Today education reform is in high gear. Even Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and one of the richest men in the world, is in on the reform agenda, using sums of his vast fortune to implement change. Mr. Gates is of the opinion that teachers should be accountable for poor student test scores, and in essence, that getting rid of these "bad" teachers and replacing them by "better" ones will raise test scores and ultimately fix the problem. One issue with this credo is that many good teachers will be forced to alter their styles of teaching to appeal to the call for higher test scores. Thus the passionate teacher, who has poor performing test takers, will feel compromised by such a need to elevate exam scores or face job elimination. Such a situation would not be good because these same teachers are the ones who touch lives and alter them for good. Test scores measure one aspect of success---certainly not all of them.
The Creed in Action
If America wants education reform then maybe it should counsel its force of educators to practice the creed: put great things into teaching, and voilà! you will get out great things, thus becoming a great teacher. If you put out love, you get back love; if you put out kindness, you get back kindness; and if you put out great teaching, you get out great teaching results.
It is that simple. Some times the things in life which seem most intractable, yield quite nicely to the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle. Why get bogged down in administrative and political wrangling, spend heaps of money on trial-and-error programs, or implement new rules when a simpler approach will work? Let the creed be adopted as a pervasive edict and watch how fast education reforms.
Sources
- Winfrey, Oprah. "The Top 20 Things Oprah Knows for Sure." Oprah Winfrey Network. Harpo Print, LLC. April 14, 2011. Web. June 30, 2011. <http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-Top-20-Things-Oprah-Knows-for-Sure>
- Ravitch, Diane. "Bill Gates: Selling Bad Advice to the Public Schools." The Daily Beast. May 23, 2011. Web. June 30, 2011. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/23/bill-gates-selling-bad-advice-to-the-public-schools.html>
Joe Pagano - Joe is a prolific writer, author, poet, and linguist, who has published over 200 articles and several books on a broad array of ...
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