Comfortable students

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High School Teachers Chatboard

Comfortable students

by Steve

May 3, 2014

The teacher I describe is not me. I have an entirely different stance than does he. If every teacher in our school were like him, we'd have very few students. No community - that I know of - has only 'lean and hungry and very bright' children. Most communities have a range of abilities. And my school is a charter though a fairly long standing one drawing from a wide range of communities - if we only admitted the 'lean and hungry bright ones' there wouldn't be jobs for 5/6ths of the faculty.

And don't the others deserve to be educated as best we can? What is society's responsibility? I serve them all as best as I can. I came to see that as my responsibility and - I'm going to blush a bit to say it - as my gift. I found in my subject matter(s) there were very specific things I could do, things I could change that tore down walls and built bridges instead.

So much of school is moving information around... from the board to their notes, from the book to their notes, from...See More

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are they comfortable On 5/03/14, Steve wrote: > The teacher I describe is not me. I have an entirely > different stance than does he. If every teacher in our > school were like him, we'd have very few students. No > community - that I know of - has only 'lean and hungry and > very bright' children. Most communities have a range of > abilities. And my ...See MoreOn 5/03/14, Steve wrote: > The teacher I describe is not me. I have an entirely > different stance than does he. If every teacher in our > school were like him, we'd have very few students. No > community - that I know of - has only 'lean and hungry and > very bright' children. Most communities have a range of > abilities. And my school is a charter though a fairly long > standing one drawing from a wide range of communities - if > we only admitted the 'lean and hungry bright ones' there > wouldn't be jobs for 5/6ths of the faculty. > > And don't the others deserve to be educated as best we can? > What is society's responsibility? I serve them all as best > as I can. I came to see that as my responsibility and - I'm > going to blush a bit to say it - as my gift. I found in my > subject matter(s) there were very specific things I could > do, things I could change that tore down walls and built > bridges instead. > > So much of school is moving information around... from the > board to their notes, from the book to their notes, from > their notes to an essay or blanks to be filled in on a page. > I saw history and literature as being so much more than that. > > Our tough teacher's department has required classes - > students don't have to choose his class but they have to > take three courses in his department. Nevertheless, it seems > that students do elect classes in your department though not > required and if you have tenure then you've been there long > enough to have it. So this isn't new for you. I'd wonder why > these questions are newly troubling you or if they've > troubled you for a while. > > LD kids and lazy - I'd recommend a book called The Myth of > the Lazy Child. I raised one very bright son who had very > severe learning disabilities. They way we teach is often not > the way they learn. And if you're teaching secondary, > they've had years of struggle. On the whole, despite all the > IEPs and layered laws, we serve LD kids very poorly because > it's very difficult in a traditional model of school to > serve them well. > > There are significant philosophical issues underlying this > discussion. 'Tough Teacher' as you see him believes he is > best suited to educate the elite - the brightest ones - and > he is well suited to that. He sees them as the new leaders > of the next generation. > > And I don't see anything wrong with that but he needs me to > keep him in a job... we can't keep a healthy enrollment > aiming at just the very bright ones. And I can take a > seemingly lazy and definitely discouraged and depressed LD > kid and show that student that he can learn. Some of my turn > around kids take 'Tough Teacher's class later on. > > You might need a cheering section... we have one teacher > who's half-hated and half-worshiped. It's how his classes > fall out and for all his detractors, he has an equal number > of supporters. Sometimes you have to be your own PR person. > > When I started to institute interesting changes in my > curriculum, I told parents - and truthfully - that I was > going back to an older model of instruction - nothing so > powerful as the past. Had I not said that, there would have > been fallout - 'what crazy nonsense is this'! > > Quote Socrates ' Wisdom begins in wonder' and "So does this > class. What are you wondering about? If nothing, find > something to wonder about!" > > You have your stance, you're committed to it, borrow some > quotes of the ancients to explain it. People need a way to > thing about things, they need a way to understand things. > > Truthfully though I get why any student these days, LD or > not, would be mired in hopelessness. I was raised in a very > different time - it was post WWII - the country was on a > high, everyone was happy and hopeful. Anything seemed > possible. Gas was 15 cents a gallon... > > Now cars cost what houses used to cost. One American > President was shot down in plain view and another was > impeached and yet another should have been. How many wars > have we fought these past several decades? > > We've gone from Eisenhower - the hero of the western world - > to 9/11. We were the saviors of civilization in 1945 and > became of the most disliked countries on the planet. And > even our lean and hungry kids tend to weigh far too much... > > My sons are old enough to have children and I seriously > wonder whether they should. There's some quote I can't > quite remember - 'they live in a world they never made' and > how even the lean, hungry and bright ones would ever remake > it is beyond me. My parents' generation was fairly called > 'The Greatest Generation' and mine has handed this > generation nothing but a deck stacked against them it seems > to me. > > But those are entirely different philosophical issues though > they play a significant role in my teaching. Much good luck > with yours. > > > > > > > > He sounds like he goes out of his way to be tough. That's not > me, but I do challenge all my students and I do have more > success overall with the serious students. To be clear, their > level of academics isn't the determining factor in my class, > but their willingness to learn. It just so happens though, > that many of those kids with LD at our school are also lazy > and hopeless. They literally will do nothing in my classes. > Fortunately this is only a few kids overall, so they are not a > factor. > > As to why weaker students enroll: Sometimes they're interested > in the subject matter and sometimes it's what fits into their > schedule. The nice thing is that when you have a reputation > for being a little tougher than many other teachers at your > school, the lazy kids will tend to stay away. I'd say I've > gone from being a teacher that many students would really > dislike to being one that there aren't any strong feelings > about amongst the majority. So I've definitely improved in the > social area as I've applied myself to it. I'll never be Mr. > popular, but hopefully I have a positive impact on the kids > who have a solid future.

I have also noticed that there is a group of really committed students who actually want to be challenged. For them, I am the best kind of teacher. But I have also heard that even when some students fail a chirpy teachers class, they still want to have them as teachers the following year. So clearly, emotional comfort wins the day when it comes to motivating students. Subject matter interest for them, as well as even grades for some, are secondary matters.

But there's no question about it: I do better with more advanced, or at least more hard-working students. This is because I don't sugarcoat things. I challenge them and I have high expectations for all of them. At the same time, the notion that "all kids can learn" is a generality that is misleading to the point of being meaningless. What it really is, is that kids learn when ready. "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." Closed minds cannot learn. So thinking that one should spend time on the losers who sit around every day with their heads on the desk refusing to work, because they may suddenly become inspired, or that if you constantly encourage them they may wake up to reality is a silly idea. Yes, that could happen. Yes, a kid could look back years later, and think "That was the only teacher who believed in me". But realistically, we need to think about how we are directing our energy. We have to try with every kid. But we also need to recognize when we are wasting our time, and how better to spend it in the classroom. Fortunately, the real nothing students (and by the way, this isn't a judgment about the whole kid, just the student part of their identity) are a very small minority.

As for the 50% who have D's and Fails, again, tough luck for them. They choose not to do the work. It's a conscious choice, and when it doesn't make me angry, I am left indifferent. The justice in the situation is that these kids will have to pay for their bad judgment later by working harder and earning less. Too bad.

May 14, 2014

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Steve I'd wonder why >> these questions are newly troubling you or if they've >> troubled you for a while. >>

> > I have also noticed that there is a group of really committed > students who actually want to be challenged. For them, I am > the best kind of teacher. But I have also heard that even > when some stu...See More