In this third and final post about not trusting your teachers, I'm going to address a third group of people that fail to have faith in educators.
In post one, I talked about society in general (and hinted at administration and the higher-ups). In post two, I discussed parents.
The third group? Students.
As usual, let me preface this by saying that in the seven years I taught, the students were the absolute best part of the job. So many of them were kind and funny and want to make the world a better place. Some of them have grown up to become my friends (because they're like almost 25 now), and we meet for lattes and talk about life. Some of them babysit my daughter. Some of them come to my house for dinner. Some of them text me or call me now that they've graduated to vent or ask advice or just catch up.
The students are why I love teaching, why I will miss it so much, and I mean that sincerely with my whole heart.
However, that doesn't mean they were perfect or that they weren't conditioned to behave a certain way. Yes, conditioned-- we as a society, as an education system, have conditioned our kids to be the way they are.
Perhaps it was just the way I was raised, but growing up, I did not question authority figures unless they asked me to do something that violated my personal beliefs or something I thought was wrong. Even if I thought a lesson was stupid or a worksheet was pointless, I trusted that my teacher had a reason for me completing that task. I may have questioned it internally. A couple times, I questioned teachers privately after class (and always, I think, respectfully).
But that was not my experience as a teacher.
I was questioned CONSTANTLY. Daily. Multiple times in every class. About my teaching tactics, about why something they were learning was important, about why they couldn't be on their phones or listen to music, about why they had to have assigned seats, why I didn't accept late work, why I marked them tardy if they walked in after the bell, why I expected them to write a research paper, why they had to learn MLA format... you name it.
Let me also clarify: questions are GOOD.
Authority shouldn't be blindly followed in certain matters or certain arenas.
I understand that giving student choice and collaborating with students is an excellent way to help them develop their own critical thinking skills, decision making skills, and sense of autonomy. VERY few times did I say, "Do this because I said so and I'm the boss." Usually the conversation was something more like, "I am telling you do to ____ because ___. It's okay if you don't agree or like it. I respect that. If you still have questions, please talk to me after class." I'm pretty sure most of my students would vouch for me in this area... at least, I tried very hard to reason with them and provide explanations for my decisions.
But I truly believe that we have created an environment in which students have too much power and freedom and not enough responsibility. That is unhealthy. It is detrimental to them and their development, both as people and as learners.
Students, here's what I need you to know about trusting me:
1) I am a trained professional. In order to be a teacher, I had to jump through all sorts of hoops and pass all sorts of tests. I possess knowledge in pedagogy, in adolescent psychology, in my content area (English), in trauma informed care, in positive discipline, in teaching reading effectively, and in a multitude of other areas.
If I am asking you to do something, it is best practice, or I have some research to back it up.
I'm not just a warm body in the room. I know how to teach, and I'm trying to use my expertise to help you learn.
2) Your success and learning is more important than your comfort. Y'all, it would be easier for me if I just let you have your phones out. If I just let you listen to music. If I just let you pick your seats. If I didn't mark you tardy and if I accepted all your late work.
But based on research and based on my own experiences, I choose to fight those battles because I believe they will help you be successful.
It's actually a lot more work for me to come take your phone, talk to you in the hallway when you refuse to give it up, give you a detention or referral when you have your phone out again, confiscate it, call your parent, etc. It takes mental energy to keep up with the number of tardies you have and follow through with consequences.
But my job as the adult is not to take the easy way out. It is to ensure that you have all the tools necessary for success. And if I kowtow to you...if I make choices about my classroom based on what you want to be more comfortable, then I don't really care about you.
Read that last line again.
It's true. You may not think it. But it's true.
3) You don't always know what you need. So often I hear, "Why am I learning this? I'm never going to need this."
How do you know?
Do you have a crystal ball?
How do you know you'll never have to research something, create a presentation on it, and present it in front of an audience? Because I live in the real world, and that's a skill I need.
How do you know you'll never have to suck it up and do some pointless assignment in the real world? Because let me tell you I have had to do that at every job I've ever had (end of year poster: I'm not 12; why am I making a poster?)
I was an English major, but thank God I was competent in math, because my first year of marriage, I supplemented our income by tutoring a high school student in algebra. I also needed math in order to take the GRE to go to graduate school and get my master's degree. Not to mention, the year I cried my way through precalculus and emerged at the end with a "C" taught me so much about my inner strength and my resilience.
You don't always know what you need in the moment.
Maybe you don't need to know how the difference between iambic pentameter and trochaic trimeter when you're reading poetry. BUT do you need to know how to problem solve? How to persevere? How to do something that makes you uncomfortable? YES. WITHOUT A DOUBT.
And THAT is what we can learn from "pointless" classes and "pointless" assignments.
I'll concede that some of what we teach in school-- some would argue most of what we do-- is useless in the real world. But I also know that it's the process, the journey, that is infinitely more important. It's learning how to be disciplined. It's learning something just for the sake of having knowledge and being a well-rounded person. It's broadening your horizons to become a more educated, empathetic person.
You don't know what you need all the time. You're 16.
It's not necessarily my job to tell you what you need-- I don't know for sure, either. But it is my job to expose you to everything that I can possibly think of that might help you someday.
Again: I know that not all teachers have the same expectations or rules.
But I do know that the vast majority are TRULY just doing what we believe is best for you, our students.
We may not see eye to eye. And if you don't trust a decision I made or a rule I enforced or whatever, that is something we can discuss respectfully in private.
That's not something for you to yell across the room during a lesson.
That's not something for you to email to me from your iPhone in an email that looks like this: "why i got a zero on my paper i turned it in on google classroom and you aint put the grade in"
That's not something for you to complain about on social media (fun story about that: one time a girl asked me for a letter of recommendation, but I had seen on Twitter earlier that year that she had put me on blast...so, I didn't write her the letter: don't bite the hand that feeds you).
Trust that sometimes adults are wiser than you are.
That most of the time, we want you to be successful.
That it's okay for you to be pushed outside of your comfort zone.
That it's healthy for you to be held to high standards.
Because if I didn't have high standards for you, it'd be because I didn't believe in you. I expect a lot from you because I think you're capable of a lot.
Trust me.
And trust yourself.
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