The Learning Addict

A great teacher that I work with gave me some great advice. He said, "Everyday, before you leave your classroom, make sure you have a reason to come back."

If you've ever been a teacher or know someone who does, you can appreciate the profundity of his statement.

Teaching in a public school isn't the most glamorous gig. There is a continuous pressure and weight that a teacher bears everyday that can all but suffocate even the best of us. More often than not, I admit, I find myself more inclined to find a reason to leave as soon as possible (especially at this time of the year!)

Nevertheless, sometime after the last bell rings and I turn to look back at the empty desks with my hand on the light switch at the end of the day, I tell myself -

"...make sure you have a reason to come back."

I'm addicted to learning. There are very few thrills that can compare to the experience of discovering a new idea, revealing what was once hidden, turning over a new stone, exploring new horizons. I still get the same biological sensation from learning as I did when I was a kid - the sudden surge of adrenaline that wells up from the tips of my toes and fingers, up my spine, and then floods into my heart and my brain as if I was finally reaching the peak of a mountain and seeing the world from a wholly new and spectacular perspective. Learning is empowering, it's inspiring, it's a fire. It encourages and molds our identity as individuals, as human beings. Learning grants us ownership of our personal value.

However, if learning is like reaching the top of a mountain, helping to facilitate and share that experience with others is like ascending up into the stars! If you've seen the peak of every mountain as far as the eye can see, imagine seeing our whole world spinning amidst the eternal, star-filled expanse of a unbounded universe!

The greatest thing about being a teacher is that moment, that point in time and space, when a student experiences learning. It's a phenomenon that is impossible to describe but you know it when it happens. The light comes on, the fog clears, a summit is reached, and the student finally sees their world from the top of a mountain.

The greatest joy as a teacher is everyday showing up to your classroom and knowing that you have an opportunity to see your students reach a new zenith, a new perspective, a deeper, better understanding of their world and that this new understanding will encourage and mold their identity as individuals, as human beings. You get to witness your students take ownership of their own personal value and you have the opportunity to help facilitate and share that experience.

Great teachers are learners. They're addicted to learning. Great teachers are also masters of igniting and inspiring the learning experience. They've shared and borrowed and practiced the art of teaching from the greats who came before them and they continuously perfect that art everyday in their classroom to point and guide their students to the mountain tops. We all know the great teachers. Our great teachers showed us the world from a wholly new and spectacular perspective. They helped encourage and mold our identity as individuals, as human beings. They helped us own our personal value.

I want to be a great teacher but I can't become a great teacher alone. I need my fellow teachers and my students to share in the experience of learning every single day.

Tomorrow, sometime after the last bell rings and I turn to look back at the empty desks with my hand on the light switch, I'll tell myself -

"...make sure you have a reason to come back."

A student reached a mountain top today. They want to climb higher but they can't reach out and touch the stars alone.



Cheers!
Josh
FourTeachers Project

The 23rd Mile

It’s the middle of May. At this point, teaching reminds me of the last stretch of a marathon. I’ve only run one marathon (which I think is enough) but I do have vivid memories of my body giving up around the 20th mile. My feet, my knees, my hips, my back all threw in the towel at the same time and I had to depend on my mental strength to carry me for the remaining 6.2 miles - which was good until my mind deserted me around the 23rd mile. Abandoned by both my own mind and body with a little over three miles to go, I turned to my spirit and even my spirit was wanting to wave the white towel once it realized I’d lost both my body and my mind. Whatever credit I may boast for completing a marathon is due to my fellow marathoners who were there running alongside me, increasing my pace, encouraging me, and challenging me to do whatever it takes to keep moving forward to the finish line against my desire to quit.

Mid-May for a teacher is the 23rd mile of a marathon. Our bodies quit sometime in February and we tap into whatever mental strength we have left to carry us through the testing months of March and April at which point we all sort of lose our minds. Right now in every classroom across the United States of America, teachers are trying whatever it takes to make it to the finish line.

Recently I’ve been perusing myriads of articles espousing and critiquing the Finnish educational system. While I acknowledge the obvious ins and outs of trying to translate Finland’s education reform into an American context, I was particularly struck by a line in LynNell Hancock’s article in Smithsonianmag.com, “Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful” -


“Whatever it takes.”


The article describes how Finland’s educators are driven by a “whatever it takes” attitude towards giving their students the highest quality education everyday in their classrooms. In pursuit of this goal, Finnish teachers are constantly collaborating and innovating on the best possible methods to reach their students. “If one method fails,” the article states, “consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges.”

Every article I’ve read on the Finnish education model has pointed to the same foundational principle for success in our schools - a collaborative, professional teaching community. Here in America, where the quality of education is measured by an endless barrage of standardized tests, the classroom oftentimes becomes a conveyor belt of programmed response instead of an inspired incubator of innovative ideas. Success in education is measured by test scores and students and teachers alike are bludgeoned with the pressure to measure up. Honestly, I think public education right now in America amounts to just keeping our fingers crossed for that green light on the production line.

The more we mechanize our education system, the more we isolate and disenchant our current and future educators and students. As long as teachers’ only incentive is based solely on high test scores, our students education will be solely restricted to bubbling the correct letter and “erasing any stray marks” on a scantron. I love to teach, but I can’t teach and won’t teach in an education system that models itself after a meat factory. My students deserve better.

In every classroom in every school in our country, we’ve hit that 23rd mile. Our bodies, our minds may have quit but our spirits have to press on. We must press on, but we cannot press on alone.

Let’s build camaraderie in our classrooms and our schools. Let’s collaborate and create together as teachers. Let’s run alongside each other, increase our pace, encourage each other, and challenge each other to do whatever it takes to keep moving forward to the finish line against any desire to quit.

Our students depend on us!

Josh
FourTeachers Project